ip son, Brown & Co, 



' Mii wnuwra. il l l ll 




Class aJkSai. 

Book _Vfa_. 



OqpghtN?. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSE 



RIGHT LIVING 



LESSONS IN ETHICS FOR SCHOOLS 



SUSAN H. WIXON 



Member of School Committee, Fall River, Mass. 



THOMPSON, BROWN & CO. 
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 



& 



xS* 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

MAY 25 1903 

Copyright Entry 
CLASS B" XXc. No. 

to 20 ° 

COPY f B. 



Copyright, 1S94, 1903, 
By Susan H. Wixon. 



AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 
TO THE MEMORY OF 

JAMES WIXON and BETHIA S. WIXON 

FROM WHOSE LIYES AND LOVING LIPS, 

WERE RECEIVED THE EARLIEST 

INCENTIVES TO RIGHT LIVING 

BY THEIR DAUGHTER. 



PREFACE. 

Human experience has shown the value of right 
living, also, the disaster that follows wrong living. It 
has been clearly demonstrated, again and again, that 
the basis of symmetrical life is character, first, last, and 
always, and good character comes only from a right 
use of life, and a correct understanding of its duties. 

Emerson says " Character is the most valuable pos- 
session and acquisition of life. Higher than intellect^ 
and a great soul will be strong to live, as well as to 
think." 

Moral stature is acquired by an inward growth or 
development of character. Aided by such precepts and 
examples as we have been fortunate enough to obtain, 
through the ministrations of others, and by our own 
efforts and observations. 

The value accorded to an acknowledged weight of 
exemplary character is illustrated in a letter from 
President Adams to George Washington, then a private 
citizen in retirement at Mount Vernon, when in 1798 
war was imminent with France — " We must have your 
name if you will permit us to use it. There will be 
more efficacy in it than in many an army." 

Good citizenship is the aim and object of public 
school teaching, and is a positive demand of the State. 
It is the endeavor to do something toward meeting this 



PREFACE. 

demand by bringing to the young people in our public 
schools the incentives to high character and noble living 
by kindly advice and admonition, strengthened by 
numerous examples and anecdotes from the lives of 
those whom the world has delighted to honor, that this 
book has been prepared. If it shall have served this 
purpose in any degree, the author's object will have 
been attained. 



As with the physical, so with the ethical. A belief, as yet fitful and 
partial, is beginning to spread amongst men, that here, also, there is 
an indissoluble bond between cause and consequence, an inexorable 
destiny, a law which altereth not. 



Herbert Spencer. 



Living is an Art, a method of expressing great conceptions; in fact, 
the highest method, the noblest of the Arts. 



Thomas Starr King. 



INTRODUCTORY. 

The great question confronting humanity to-day is 
one of ethics. Real life, how to find and enjoy it, is 
the most important problem of this, or any age. The 
most significant of all thinking, teaching and training 
is found in ethical lines. Without this foundation, 
life is insufficient and incomplete. The facts bearing 
upon certain rules of conduct must be impressed upon 
the mind as emphatically as the facts of mathematics, 
accepted with the understanding that they are, like 
the fundamentals of arithmetic, to be applied in the 
affairs and business of life, in order to evolve the 
highest possible ultimate. Correct conduct is imper- 
ative in all conditions, under all circumstances. Where 
it is not, life cannot be counted a success, but a dis- 
astrous failure. 

Every aid should be sought to deepen and strengthen 
moral conviction. A wise word, timely spoken, has 
saved men from the convicts cell. Sound advice is 
the rope thrown to those in the mire of doubt and de- 
spair. It is the stairway leading from danger. Ap- 
propriate sayings, similes, bits of wisdom here and 
there are the golden nails that fasten facts in the 
memory forever. Philosophers have dropped them 
all the way along. Yet all wise precepts are valueless 
unless practically carried into use, not for on* 3 day 
alone, but for every day. 

The highest good of the individual, the greatest 



8 INTRODUCTORY 

good to the greatest number — this is the high purpose 
of life. 

How to live honestly, truly, correctly, nobly and 
honorably is the grand object of being. 

Life consists in action, in duty done hourly. This 
fact understood and acted upon is life, wherever 
found. That which we ought to do and should do, 
is only conformity to correct action, that is, the action 
that gives, or, is productive of real pleasure, sincere 
satisfaction. 

We know when we do wrong by the misery experi- 
enced, the trouble and mental disturbance that fol- 
low; or, observing the result in others, we need not 
experiment ourselves in wrong-doing, to be sure of the 
fact. We know, as well, the consequence of right action 
by the happiness it brings to ourselves and others. 

Humanity is a unit — a body. We are parts of the 
whole. We cannot injure a part but the hurt is felt, 
directly or indirectly, soon or late, by the whole. 
We cannot injure ourselves, but, some one else must 
suffer on that account. Every one contributes more 
or less, in one way or another, to the general welfare. 
Our own interest and the interest of the whole, there- 
fore, are identical. Hence, the necessity of the best 
action. In our undertakings, it is our business to in- 
quire — will the doing of this bring peace and harmony, 
or wilt it produce pain and inharmony? If the former, 
I shall do it cheerfully and eagerly; if the latter, I 
must refrain from its performance. 

It is a law of nature to do naught that imposes tor- 
ture upon ourselves, because we shrink from suffering. 
Therefore we shun those acts that hold the sting of 
pain and regret. 



INTRODUCTORY : g 

Experience has brought the conviction that certain 
other courses we pursue bring joy, comfort, happiness, 
and leave no shame, pain or sorrow after them. How 
to secure this condition of human happiness to each 
and all, and how to avoid the other extreme of grief 
and dismay should be the object of all lovers of the 
human race. 

We are constantly to try to know more of human 
nature, the appetites and passions, the laws of hered- 
ity, the affections, forces, environment and influences 
that make human beings as they are. As we learn 
more of the guiding and controlling powers of life, 
we will be better fitted to guide, restrain and direct 
others. It is our duty to be ready to show by actual 
demonstration, by example, the nobler way and the 
reasons for walking therein. Many would be better 
men and better women, better children, if they only 
knew how to be. Such a showing and inducing of all 
to adopt the way that is free from pain, vexation and 
depair, is true moral culture. 

It has been sometimes questioned, how one should 
be trained who is inclined more to vice than to vir- 
tue. For instance, a child has a tendency to take 
things not belonging to him — how would you break 
him of the evil? How indeed, but by stimulating the 
organs of the brain bearing upon honesty and jus- 
tice; by calling the blood from one set of organs to 
the opposite, showing the difference between those good 
qualities, whose action makes happiness, and the attri- 
butes of theft, dishonesty and injustice, whose action 
results in shame and distress? Where one manifests 
a disposition to be penurious and selfish, show the 
attractiveness of benevolence and generosity. 



io INTRODUCTORY 

The circulation of the blood is swifter where a func- 
tion of the brain is in action. We should aim to bring 
the circulation to that function of the mental system 
whose use is followed by health- and pleasure. A 
faculty not stirred or aroused to action, becomes dor- 
mant, and, after awhile, inactive. Lead one to think 
of what he actually is, and then, make him realize, 
if possible, all that he ought to be, and may become. 
Point him toward the unfoldment of the great possi- 
bilities and capabilities of his highest nature. 

Nothing that we have seen or known, is more won- 
derful and beautiful than the mind of man. To aid 
its processes of growth and development, its highest 
unfoldment, is the object of this book. 

Susan H. Wixon. 



CONTENTS. 

Right Living 13 

What is Morality? 18 

What is Ignorance? 22 

Knowledge the Great Treasure 26 

Concerning Education 31 

Conduct; or Right Doing 37 

Virtue, the Illuminator of Life 41 

Prudence, an Economy of Life 45 

What Know Ye of Justice ? 49 

Fortitude a Noble Possession 53 

Temperance and Intemperance 56 

Is the Use of Tobacco Dangerous? 62 

Cultivation of Individuality 66 

Character, a Jewel of Great Price 71 

Idleness, another Name for Loss 76 

Industry, the Staff of Life 80 

Value of a Trade 84 

Recreation a Necessity 90 

Games of Chance 95 

Truth and Falsehood 99 

What is an Oath? or the Worth of a Promise. . . 104 

Fraud a Crime no 

The Poison of Slander 115 

What is Hypocrisy? 120 

Conscience, or Moral Sense 123 

Selfishness, the Menace of Society 127 

Gratitude, a Fragrant Flower of Life 131 

Is Reverence a Duty? 134 

Self-Reliance 138 



12 CONTENTS 

Self-Control 142 

Self-Respect 145 

Foolish Pride and Silly Prejudice 148 

Anger, the Distorter 152 

The Angel of Forgiveness 157 

Observation a Great Faculty 160 

Perseverance, the Friend of Man 165 

Punctuality, a Promoter of Success 170 

The Diffjculties of Life 174 

Temptation, the Demon on the Highway 179 

Habit, Second Nature 184 

Power of Will igo 

Courage, a Necessity to Right Living 196 

In Regard to Concealed Vice 201 

Beautiful Charity 206 

Fidelity, the Giver of Strength and Honor.... 211 

Value of Wealth 216 

Avarice, not a Means to Life's Best End 221 

Good Nature, one of Life's Best Blossoms 226 

Reason and Free Inquiry 230 

Free Speech , 235 

A Free Press 24J 

Rights of Animals 246 

Rights of Children 253 

Human Rights; or the Equality of Man 258 

Moral Cleanliness 266 

Politeness. The Gentleman 271 

Politeness. — continued —The Gentlewoman 277 

B est Society . . , , 283 

Progress ; or Enlightenment 287 

Wisdom 290 



RIGHT LIVING 



RIGHT LIVING. 

Living will teach you how to . live better than preacher or book. — 
Goethe. 

What is it to live? Is it simply to eat, drink and 
be merry? 

Is it to learn a little, here and there, to laugh and 
play, to sleep, weep, toil and battle from day to day, 
and from year to year for food and raiment? 

Is it to bend every energy to the acquirement of 
wealth, fame or position? 

Is it to sacrifice all for the applause of the multi- 
tude? 

Life is more than that. It has larger uses. It con- 
tains greater and grander results. It holds loftier and 
nobler aspirations. Its measure is flaming with the 
fires of truth, glowing with the gold of understanding. 

Life, rightly lived is an inspiration, an incentive to 
high effort, a means of true and sure happiness. 

He will be worthy the praise and gratitude of mil- 
lions, who can impress upon the minds of men that 
there is more to life than just to dig and delve for 
food and shelter. 

He will receive still greater praise and honor who 



H 



RIGHT LIVING 



can show man how to so employ time as to get the 
most out of life without harm to himself, or injury to 
others. 

Life is the great central force of everything we 
know or realize. Few are, as yet, able to com- 
prehend the vastness and splendor of life rightly lived, 
and from which is eliminated the base crudities of 
human nature, that, unbalanced and unchecked, make 
beasts of those who wear the human form. 

Our concern is to improve, strengthen and quicken 
the tendrils of right action; in every way possible, 
to bring to light the best forces of physical, moral, 
mental and intellectual being. 

Life is not to count the days, the weeks and months, 
and, by their measurement, to say we are so old, or 
so young. 

The dropping of the years is not life. 

There is no age to the virtues. 

The harmonies that comprise the scale and scope of 
right living are always the same. They never change. 

Knowledge of the real, and the faculty of applying 
it, is that which is required to render life great and 
grand as the universe, glorious as eternal truth. 

The capacity for right living is boundless as space. 

How to make the most of life, how to live it aright, 
how to fill it with the treasures of knowledge, the 
uses of wisdom, is a goal that everyone should strive 
for. 

Do not wait. Begin the right life now, for there 
is no better time, no more convenient opportunity. 

But, what is right living? It is the abnegation of 
self, and selfish propensities. It is human helpful- 
ness. 



RIGHT LIVING 15 

It is honesty of purpose. 

It is a steady aim for the right — an unflinching 
purpose to stand by the right at all times and upon 
all occasions. 

It is a full recognition of the power of the right. 

It is enlightenment. It is conviction. 

It is the courage of conviction. 

It is the deep sensing of the fact of the universal 
brotherhood of man. 

Right living is the lifting of the actual to the high- 
est possible ideal. 

It is the making of earth a better dwelling place for 
all. 

Right living, once mastered, brings paradise to 
every home and heart. To make right living, there 
must be the deep throbbing of a sound mind in a sound 
body. 

'•Life's more than breath and the quick round of blood, 

It is a great spirit and a busy heart, 

The coward and the small in soul scarce do live. 

One generous feeling — one great thought — one deed 

Of good, ere night, would make life longer seem 

Than if each year might number a thousand days, — 

Spent as is this by nations of mankind. 

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; 

In feelings, not in figures on a dial. 

We should count time by heart throbs. 

He most lives 
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best." 

How, then, shall we learn to live rightty? One 
method is by observing the lives of others and by not- 
ing the qualities that have made them happy, re- 
spected and beloved; and then, to apply those quali- 
ties to our own lives, as far as possible. There is no 



16 RIGHT LIVING 

limit to the possibilities of life in its best develop- 
ment. Courage gives us strength to reach toward the 
highest possibility. First steps are in the line of 
honor, usefulness, kindness, truth and affection. 

Right living is the process by which we find the 
work we are adapted for, and the earnest doing of the 
same. 

It is to watch ourselves as a farmer scans his gar- 
den. Do the weeds spring up? He uproots them at 
once. Is irrigation needed? Are showers long in 
coming? He finds a way to bring water to the parched 
earth. He seeks all avenues to bring his harvests 
plentiful and healthy, and somewhat improved over 
former years. 

Said Marcus Aurelius — "Men exist for the sake of 
one another; teach them, then, or bear with them " 

"The best way of avenging thyself is not to become 
like the wrong-doer." 

"Be not ashamed to be helped, for it is thy busi- 
ness to do thy duty like a soldier in the assault of a 
town. Therefore, if being lame,thou canst not mount 
upon the battlements alone, but with the help of an- 
other, accept help." 

"One thing here is worth a great deal — to pass life 
in truth and justice, with a benevolent disposition, 
even to liars and unjust men." 

"Observe constantly that all things take place by 
change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nat- 
ure of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change 
the things which are and to make new things like 
them." 

"We are all working together to one end, some with 
knowledge and design, and others, without knowing 



RIGHT LIVING 17 

what they do. But men co-operate after different 
fashions, and even those co-operate abundantly who 
find fault with nature, and those who try to oppose 
and hinder her, for the universe had need of even such 
men as these." 

"It is very possible to be a great man, and be recog- 
nized as such by no one." 

"Run through thy little space of time conformably to 
nature, and end thy journey in content, just as an 
olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who 
produced it, and thanking the tree upon which it 
grew." 

Right living is the mastery of those things which 
lead to, or bring us shame and sorrow. 

It is by strength of the moral nature that evils are 
overcome. In order to be strong to resist, and to in- 
crease and develop in all that tends to nobility and 
greatness of character, certain qualities of the moral 
nature must be trained, educated, strengthened, be- 
cause moral strength, moral force is the lever that 
raises manhood and womanhood toward a lofty ideal. 
It is the practice of the virtues that renders life de- 
lightful. 



II. 

WHAT IS MORALITY? 

The straightest way, perhaps, which may be sought, 
Lies through the great highway, men call — "I ought." 

Anon. 
Man should do all things he knows are right, 
And fear to do no act save what is wrong. 

Phebe Carey. 

Inherent in the nature of man are certain valuable 
qualities. 

The unfoldment, growth, cultivation and adaptation 
of these qualities to certain ends, should always be 
sought. Wherefore? Because such unfoldment, growth, 
cultivation and adaptation applied to daily conduct, 
tend to the betterment of man, and, also, to the 
well-being of those with whom he comes in contact. 

Acquaintance with, and obedience to, these moral 
forces of life, which may be justly called natural laws, 
makes happiness — gives strength, beauty and character 
to men, women and children. What are called morals, 
these are to man as roots to a tree. Give the roots 
room to grow, good soil to grow in, and they will 
afford nourishment and healthy life to the tree, that, 
in return, yields a wealth of bloom, which, in time, 
changes into sound and beautiful fruit. 

Cut the roots, neglect them, allow them to become 
diseased, the worm to fasten upon them, and the 
18 



WHA T IS MORALITY ? 1 9 

growth of the tree is arrested, its vitality becomes 
feeble, the branches decay and break, the leaves curl 
and fall prematurely, the blossom is weak and imma- 
ture, the fruit unsightly and imperfect. 

Thus are morals the rootlets, the very foundation of 
true manhood, of noble and excellent womanhood. 
jive them space to stretch, increase and expand, a 
gracious and healthy soil, and they cannot fail to pro- 
luce a grand and vigorous growth, with sweet, sus- 
:aining and attractive fruit. Omit or neglect to take 
especial care of those roots of life, force them to grow 
n impoverished ground, amid pernicious weeds that 
;heck and clog their freedom, and they become 
winched, narrowed, twisted and sapless. The man is 
:hen a weakling, a starved, repulsive object, the fruit- 
ige of whose life is unwholesome, acrid and poisonous. 

In living a moral life, should one be actuated by 
lope of reward or fear of punishment? No. Such rea- 
sons are both degrading and insulting. Animals are 
noral but they cannot tell why. Man should be moral 
because it has been proven that morality is better for 
lealth, happiness and comfort. 

What should we regard as moral? 

Anything that tends to the elevation and happiness 
)f humanity is moral. Any power that lifts man from 
he filth of degradation, and places him on the solid 
ground of sound sense, good understanding and wis- 
lom, is moral. Any influence that makes of a human 
)eing a better man, a more devoted husband, a kinder 
parent, a more agreeable neighbor, a truer friend, a 
nore genial and reliable comrade, a nobler citizen, is 
noral. Anything that removes ignorance and substi- 
utes knowledge is moral. 



20 RIGHT LIVING 

Good health is one of the requisites of good morals. 
A healthy body can sustain a healthy mind better than 
a feeble and diseased body; therefore, we should scru- 
pulously observe hygienic principles, be true to all 
laws of health, and jealously guard every avenue 
through which might enter disease and infirmity. We 
should be careful as to the food we eat, and the Tfluid 
we drink, that no harmful thing may enter the sys- 
tem, and thus work injury to the physical, mental or 
moral nature, each being dependent and inter-depend- 
ent upon the other. 

Conduct is the true test of character, and the various 
combinations and qualifications that go to make up 
the virtuous among men, women and children, arise 
from what we term morals. 

The distinguishing traits that dignify, ennoble and 
glorify humanity are morals, and every living person 
is entitled to instruction in morals, because such in- 
struction operates to develop true men and true wo- 
men, honest and upright citizens, and these are the 
need of all times and all countries. 

STORY OF MICHAEL ANGELO. 

It is related of this great sculptor, that once walking 
with some friends through an obscure street in Flor- 
ence, he discovered a fine block of marble lying neg- 
lected in a yard, and half buried in dirt and rubbish. 
Regardless of his holiday attire, he fell to work upon 
it, cleared away its filth, and lifted it from the slime 
and mire in which it lay. His companions asked him 
in astonishment what he wanted with that worthless 
piece of rock. "Oh," said he, "there's an angel in 
the stone and I must get it out." 



WHA T IS MORAL1 TV/ 21 

He removed it to his studio and there, with patient 
toil, with mallet and chisel, he let the angel out. 

What to others was but a rude unsightly mass of 
stone, to his educated eye was the buried glory of art. 
A mason would have put it in a stone wall; a cart- 
man would have used it for filling in, or to grade 
streets ; but, Angelo transformed it into a gem of art, 
and gave it value for ages to come. What possibilities 
of virtue and usefulness may we not see in a child? 
Do we know how to get the angel out? Are children, 
men and women, to be only used for "filling in," to 
lie amid dirt and gravel, or to stand out in the glory 
and beauty of true manhood and real womanhood? To 
the end that human beings may become real men and 
real women, is the knowledge and practice of morals 
— that they may learn to use the measures that con- 
duce to the highest happiness and supreme welfare of 
the greatest number, this is morality. 



III. 

WHAT IS IGNORANCE? 

We suffer much from the faults of others, but we lose much more 
by our own ignorance. — Ruskin. 

Ignorance is mental darkness. We live in a cycle 
of free libraries. We live in the age of science. The 
newspaper is everywhere. Then is it not almost crim- 
inal to remain stifled in ignorance? For, if we have 
not the advantages of free schools, we still may have 
the newspapers and libraries. 

Who are the ignorant? 

They are the blunderers. 

They are the plodders, who do the bidding of others 
in any menial service commanded. 

What is it to be ignorant? It is*to grope the way 
— to stumble — to see through a glass darkly — to peer 
this way and that, and know not the light. For ex- 
ample, Ignorance it was that had once a strip of rag 
in a cup of lard, for a lamp to read by. Knowledge, 
after a time, gave a tallow candle. To-day, the same 
science, extended, has revealed the incandescent light, 
flooding the spaces with brilliance and glory. 

To be ignorant is to take a back seat. 

It is to be pushed aside while learning and intelli- 
gence grasp the prizes of life. 

We ought to be ashamed to be ignorant. 



WHA 1 IS IGNORANCE? 23 

We should be still more ashamed to be deficient in 
moral understanding of the laws of right and justice. 

Gray, the poet, wrote : 

"Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise. ' 

But ignorance is never bliss. It may stand for in- 
action, content, stupidity, but it is not bliss in the 
true meaning of the word. 

No community is in a blissful state that has a major- 
ity of ignorant people. It is a concern of the genera] 
public, as well as the individual, that the people shall 
not be ignorant. 

Why so? 

Because it may be observed that where poverty 
largely exists, there is ignorance. Does not history 
prove that where ignorance prevails, especially igno- 
rance of moral laws, there may be witnessed the de- 
cline of nations, principalities and powers? 

Where there is licentiousness, wickedness, criminal- 
ity, laxity in the enforcement of law, abuses of per- 
sons and property, or a foolish pride in the same, there 
is ignorance, real ignorance of the moral purpose of 
life. 

This is not to say, however, that to be ignorant, in 
the general term, is synonymous with wickedness, for 
there are many ignorant people, who are as good, 
morally, as the most finely educated, in many in- 
stances far superior. 

So there are educated persons, who, morally, walk 
in the very slums of ignorance. 

Ignorance is in all directions. In lacking of skillful 
fingers, quickened thought to apply ways and means 
to make a living, in wastefulness of energies, in fail- 
ure to find the channels of progress, 



24 RIGHT LIVING 

It is conceited and thinks it knows when it does 
not know. No one is rightly educated who walks in 
defiance of moral restraints. 

Ignorance is a mischief maker, a deceiver, a con- 
triver of continual mistakes. 

When Alexander the Great was plundering the pal- 
ace of Darius, one of his soldiers found a leather bag. 
It contained the crown jewels of Persia. The prize 
was worth millions, but what did the stupid fellow 
do? He shook out the glittering gems among the 
refuse and rubbish, and said he had found a fine sack 
to carry his dinner in! 

Fear nothing so much as ignorance, for ignorance 
leads into dangers, mishaps and troubles of all kinds. 
It is the great evil of all evils. 

There is a curious old Norse fable which relates 
that once upon a time the Evil One — that is, the great 
chief devil of all the lesser devils — was walking abroad, 
and he chanced upon a man engaged in making but- 
tons out of molten lead. "What in the world are you 
doing?" he inquired. 

"Making eyes," said the man, facetiously, and kept 
on gravely at his work. 

"Making eyes! Making eyes!" reflectively mused 
the one who was said to possess an evil eye himself. 
After a pause he said — "Really, I dislike this 
evil eye of mine. Can you make me some new 
eyes?" 

"Oh, yes, indeed," was the reply; "but you must 
first be bound hand and foot." 

Accordingly, the devil consented, and when he was 
securely fastened, the man poured the molten lead in 
his evil eyes, and in a short time the devil died of 



WHAT IS IGNORANCE? 25 

his new eyes in great agony, and was never seen on 
earth again. 

When the eyes of ignorance are put out, evil will 
disappear. 



IV. 



KNOWLEDGE THE GREAT TREASURE. 

Knowledge is the most valuable treasure, for it cannot be stolen nor 
consumed. Hitopadesa. 

The ink of Science is more precious than the blood of martyrs. 

Arabic Proverb. 

That which we know is all our own. The more we 
know — the more we absorb of useful knowledge, the 
richer we become. 

Science which can be shown, demonstrated, real- 
ized, is the desirable thing. 

Does not actual knowledge put to flight all extremes 
of error and misunderstanding? 

Take a fact in Nature; prove it; it becomes yours, 
and not all the hyenas and bloodhounds of ignorance 
can take it from you. As some one has said before, 
"There are two most valuable possessions which no 
search warrant can get at; and which no reverse of 
fortune can destroy : they are what a man puts into 
his head — knowledge; and into his hands — skill." 

Is there any limit to the acquisition of knowledge? 

No. No certain person has gained the whole of 
knowledge, and no one knows so much that he may 
not acquire still more. Sir Isaac Newton said at the 
close of his illustrious life, that the great facts he 
had found by study and search, were but pebbles on 
26 



KNOWLEDGE THE GREAT TREASURE 27 

the seashore, compared to the vast ocean of knowl- 
edge still untouched. 

We are never too old to learn, and the great pur- 
pose of life should be to store the mind with all the 
useful knowledge possible. 

Why? Because we are thus armed and equipped 
to battle with the forces of error and prejudice, and 
in any encounter to come off conqueror. "The true 
victories," said Napoleon Bonaparte, "the only ones 
which we need never lament, are those won over the 
dominion of ignorance. " 

To knozv is to walk with kingly tread among men. 

It is to be uplifted. It is to become the owner of 
treasures of more value than mines of gold and silver. 

It is to walk in clear light. 

Knowledge, real knowledge, is stimulation. 

It has a million strings, by which it draws us, step 
by step, to fountains of living waters, the fountains 
that supply the thirst of all nations. 

The fundamental forces of being urge on to discov- 
ery. These forces dawn with active life, and prompts 
the child to inquire, to question everything it sees and 
hears. It has a right to intelligent answers to its 
questions, and explanation of all it does not under- 
stand. 

Nature commands that we seek to know, and know- 
ing, to apply knowledge. Of what avail is knowledge 
unless applied? In a book called "Homestead High- 
ways," the author tells of a graduate of a distinguished 
New England college, who could tell all about Latin 
and Greek roots, and, who later was graduated from a 
well-known theological seminary with some degree of 
honor, who, when his health failed, because of over- 



28 RIGHT LIVING 

study, went back to the old homestead among the hills 
and took up the plough. This man, though he knew 
so much of dead languages, so much of higher mathe- 
matics and of philosophy, so much of all that was 
choice in literature, went about his farm with his cart- 
axles groaning and squeaking so loudly that his neigh- 
bors might hear them a half-mile away. One day he 
started out with his oxen and cart for the adajcent 
grist-mill. He had not gone far when he met a neighbor. 

"Wal, deacon, 'pears like them air wheels o' yourn 
air purty dry. I've hearn 'em squeakin' more this 
year 'en ever. Why don't yer grease 'em, deacon? 
Sounds kinder lon'som' like f hear 'em whinin' up 
an' daown hill, an' 'cross th' fields. "' 

"Why, sir, it never occurred to me, but I think it 
might be a very excellent plan. I believe father did 
something of the kind when I was a boy." 

So, the author says, it was with everything about 
the deacon's farm. The things wore out, went to ruin 
quickly because the deacon had no knowledge of the 
ordinary workings of every day life. He could not de- 
cipher Nature's cost-mark. 

To store the mind with dates and figures is not so 
important as to know how to interpret the devices of 
Nature, to apply that which we do know to the life 
we live. That which is termed invention or discov- 
ery, is only applied knowledge. We may fill our 
minds with huge collections of thoughts of others; 
but they serve little purpose unless we deduce from 
them new and original thoughts of our own. 

The accumulation of much knowledge avails noth 
ing unless for helpfulness toward others as well as to 
ourselves. 



KNOWLEDGE THE GREAT TREASURE 29 

Knowledge is needed in the emergencies of life, and 
in the pursuit of happiness. It is craved as an incen- 
tive to gain more knowledge, and to induce others to 
apply for more. 

For what purpose? 

Surely to make living easier, pleasanter, better. To 
make all who come within the circle of our influence, 
as well as ourselves, wiser, nobler, happier, better 
able to cope with the emissaries of crime and the 
temptations that arise on every hand. 

Is this not an inspiration in the search after knowl 
edge? Does it not point to finer growth, greater activ- 
ity? 

How shall I teach others, you ask? 

Tell in the simplest way, and by direct and appro- 
priate illustration, the truths you have learned. 

Teach that you know. That you do not know you 
have no right to assume to know. 

No humble aid should be overlooked in seeking 
knowledge. 

Nothing should be thought beneath our notice, even 
though coming outside our particular range. Unfore- 
seen difficulties are constantly arising whereby that 
which we know, however simple it may be, will come 
in play. 

It is related of Joseph Hume that after he was ap- 
pointed ship's surgeon he made several professional 
voyages from England to India. His spare time he 
devoted to the study of navigation, although never 
expecting to be a navigator. Many years after in 
1825, on his passage from London to Leith in a sailing 
smack, when the vessel had scarcely cleared the mouth 
of the Thames, a sudden storm came on. The vessel 



30 RIGHT LIVING 

was driven out of her course, and in the darkness of 
night struck on the Goodwin sands. The captain lost 
his presence of mind, and seemed incapable of giving 
coherent orders. The vessel would quickly have be- 
come a total wreck had not one of the passengers sud- 
denly taken command and directed the working of the 
craft. This passenger took the helm until the dan- 
ger was over. The vessel, her cargo and passengers, 
all were saved and the man who sailed the smack out 
of danger was Joseph Hume. 

Thus knowledge acquired in a leisure hour saved 
life and property in the midst of a storm and gale. 

Let no moment flit by unimproved. 
• A mind directed toward the inn of knowledge will 
not be apt to stray into forbidden paths of crime and 
shame, or find itself at last in the hovel of dismay 
and despair. 



V. 

CONCERNING EDUCATION. 

Education should bring to mind the ideal of the individual. 

Richter. 

Education is the enlargement of perception. It is 
extension of thought. It is unfoldment. It is growth. 
It is the flowering of mind and morals. It is the 
means whereby character is made. It is the charm 
that gives gracefulness to strength of mind, extension 
to the range of vision, power and glory to the whole 
being of man. 

Any other object than the uplifting of the human 
being is unworthy to be called education. 

Is instruction alone education, do you think? Is to 
be able to enumerate the names of towns and cities 
by the thousand, to detail events from six thousand 
years down, education? 

That is only an exercise of memory. 

Education is more than an effort of memorizing. 

It is the opening of latent talent, the loosing of 
the soil of the mind, that new roots may stir to ac- 
tion. It is the fact of independent acting; the awak- 
ening of dormant powers, the starting of thought, the 
flashing of observation, the kindling of reflection. 

It is facts put to use. 

It is application, enfolding the physical and mental, 
the moral and intellectual. 
31 



32 RIGHT LIVING 

Mental development in a weak and feeble body, is 
like life in an imperfect and dilapidated mansion, 
where the roof is leaky, the windows rattling, the 
doors unhinged and the chimney defective. Yet, a 
physical development, defying disease, a muscular 
frame like a prize-fighter is of no great value if the 
mind is a barren field, a wild pasture, the moral attri- 
butes swinging and swaying in the wilderness of igno- 
rance, untaught and uncontrolled. 

Education combines the vigor of both mind and 
body. It holds all parts of the human system com- 
plete and able to compete with the world. 

A mind enlarged by practical comprehension of all 
that is adapted to common every day living, sustained 
by principle, nourished by the virtues, is a jewel. 
When set in a firm, healthy brain, supported by health- 
ful blood in a healthy body, it is, indeed, the one 
great prize of time and the world we live in. 

Education is a flood of rich music, enriching and 
enrapturing all who come within the spheres of its 
harmonies. 

Education is the changing of the ideal into the 
real. It is gained always by personal effort. 

It is true enough that some seem not to have the 
energy to make the effort of acquiring education. 
Such must make special endeavor. 

A step at a time. 

The mastering of the alphabet is the key to all there 
is to know from books, and books are but the tools 
we work with, to gain much that is unwritten and 
unsaid. 

A wealthy woman once placed her daughter in a 
fashionable seminary to be educated. The teacher 



CONCERNING ED UCA TION 33 

told the mother subsequently that it seemed impossi- 
ble to fix the attention of the daughter. "She seems 
to lack capacity," said the teacher. "Capacity! Ca- 
pacity!" indignantly exclaimed the irate parent. "Why 
did you not inform me before. I would have you 
know my, daughter's father is able to buy her a ca- 
pacity if she needs one!" 

But capacity is something that money cannot pur- 
chase. It may procure diplomas, but cannot buy that 
which makes diplomas. 

An education cannot be purchased or given. 

It has to be earned in all cases, by the one who as- 
pires to it. 

There are some, who having gained a smattering of 
many sciences, therefore think they know all there is 
worth knowing. Such continually fall into mistakes. 

The builders tell a rather interesting story of a 
Buffalo capitalist who was pretty summarily taken 
down for trying to set himself up as the end of all 
things in whatever he undertook. No matter what was 
on foot, if he went into it he must have all the say 
and nobody else was allowed even a side remark. Not 
long ago he built a fine brick house. In this under- 
taking, as in all others, he was boss and all hands, 
dictating to builders, architects, and all without the 
slightest hesitation. At last they grew very tired of 
the browbeating they had to stand and let him have 
his way whether it was right or wrong; The house 
was finished and shortly afterward the owner set about 
building furnace fires to test his heating apparatus, 
when behold, there wasn't a chimney in the house! 

Thus, not to be educated in the real sense is at 
some period in life, sometimes, at frequent intervals, 
to be humiliated. 



34 RIGHT LIVING 

There is no greater harm to any country than that 
its government should neglect to impartially educate 
its children. 

That government is always best that affords the 
best means of education, an education that is rational, 
substantial and equal to all. 

Why should you care for an education? For what 
reason? Because education makes happiness. 

It makes men and women of value to the world and 
to one another. 

Emerson has told us that "men are helpful through 
the intellect and the affections. Other help," he says, 
"I find a false appearance. If you affect to give me 
bread and fire, I perceive that I pay for it the full 
price, and, at last, it leaves me as it found me, neither 
better nor worse; but all mental and moral force is a 
positive good. It goes out from you whether you will 
or not, and profits one whom you never thought of." 

Then, when a human being is put out into the 
world, if he has no education, is not the community 
thereof deprived of a useful citizen, and, with the 
chance of having to provide for a pauper, or, it may 
be, a criminal? 

Education is the basis of virtue and goodness. And 
shall we not favor that which shows us how to live 
happily and wisely? 

But what shall we say to those whom circumstances 
seem to have deprived of the common privileges of 
education, or, ordinary school advantages? 

Compel circumstances to give the means. 

How? By not throwing away one chance though 
it be ever so slight. 

William Cobbett, it is said, exerted a most wonder- 



CONCERNING EDUCATION 35 

ful influence in the country in which he was born, 
England, and, also, in America. His early life was 
darkened by poverty and clouded by severe privation. 
Speaking of the same difficulties with which he was 
obliged to contend in getting an education, he said — 

"I learned grammar when I was a private soldier on 
the pay of six pence a day. The edge of my berth, 
or that of my guard bed, was my seat to study in; my 
knapsack was my bookcase, and a bit of board my 
writing table. I had no money to purchase candles or 
oil; in winter-time it was rarely that I could get any 
light but that of the fire, and only my turn, even, at 
that. To buy a pen or a sheet of paper, I was com- 
pelled to forego some portion of food, though in a 
state of half starvation. I had no moment that I could 
call my own, and I had to read and write amid the 
talking, laughing, singing, whistling and bawling of 
at least half a score of the most thoughtless men, and 
that, too, in hours of freedom from all control. 

"And I say, if I, under circumstances like these could 
encounter and overcome the task, can there be in the 
whole world a youth who can find an excuse for the 
non-performance?" Of this man (Cobbett, ) it is 
said that "early rising, temperate living, concentrated 
industry and health preserved by much out-door exer- 
cise, enabled him to get through a much larger quan- 
tity of brain work than any author of his day, not ex- 
cepting Sir Walter Scott." 

The experiences of others, as we receive them in 
books and by word of mouth, are the charts by which 
we are enabled to shape our own course. 

To become educated in its best and truest sense, is 
to know how to be useful to ourselves, serviceable to 



36 RIGHT LIVING 

society, and valuable to our country and the world. 

We should strive to be well-educated, not alone in 
books, but in mechanical arts. The best education is 
that which combines instruction of books and exper- 
ience, with practical work in mechanics. 

He is well educated whose skillful hands are directed 
by a quick, clear and comprehensive mind. 

Education is a Lane of Delight where one may walk 
at all times without weariness. 

"Without education," said Luther, "men are as bears 
and wolves." Carlyle added: — "It is the clearest duty 
prescribed by nature herself under silent but real and 
awful penalties, on governing persons in every society, 
to see that the people, so far as possible, are taught 
— that wherever a citizen is born some chance be 
offered him of becoming "a man" and not "a bear or 
wolf. " 



VI. 

conduct: or right doing. 

Every right action and true thought sets the seal of its beauty on 
person and face. Ruskin. 

Right doing makes right living. One may have the 
theory of correct life, yet if his actions do not tally 
with his thought, he is really accomplishing little or 
nothing. 

Words are cheap. They are easily spoken. Their 
signification is found in actual exemplification. 

That which we do makes character. We judge peo- 
ple by their acts. 

Our acts our angels are if good; if ill 
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still." 

We should do right, because it is right, and because 
such doing brings happiness and pleasurable feelings; 
not in order to be rewarded, or for fear of punish- 
ment. Our firm principles of right, our self-respect 
should keep us from wrong or mean actions. 

It is told that in the early days of the Illinois Cen- 
tral Railway the line was not fenced, and one day, 
two cows belonging to a Methodist clergymen were 
killed. Being sued for damages, the company re- 
solved to make a test case of it. The President of 
the company directed Mr. Denton to take $500 in 
gold and go to Springfield and retain Abraham Lin' 
37 



38 RIGHT LIVING 

coin, whom he knew well, for the company. Mr. Lin- 
coln replied to his request, S 'I am sorry you didn't 
come yesterday, Nick, for I have been retained by 
the preacher and his friends." 

Denton explained full)- the importance of the case 
to the company, and then, pulling two buckskin bags 
filled with gold out of his pockets, he put them down 
on the table before the lawyer, with a most significant 
chink, saying : — Mr. Lincoln, the President of the 
company authorized me to hand you this retainer of 
$500 to take our case." 

Mr. Lincoln jumped to his feet, his face flushing 
with anger and indignation. "Nick Denton!" he said, 
"I have given my promise to that preacher and his 
friends, and the Illinios Central hasn't money enough 
to buy me away from his side. I don't know that I 
shall ever get a dollar from him, biit I'll do my best 
to make your company pay for those cows." 

Denton said thathe'never felt so small and mean in 
his life as he did at that moment. 

And in i860, though a Democrat, he used to say, 
during the Presidential Campaign, that Lincoln was 
the noblest man in America. 

Conscience tells us that it is better, not alone for 
ourselves, but for everybody else, for the whole world, 
to do the right thing. It may be hard at the time of 
doing it — it may be difficult to overcome temptation, 
but, to be true to that we know is right, is always bsst 
in the end. 

To do right is the supreme reality of a moral life. 
It is the way to noble manhood, to glorious woman- 
hood. It is the starry crown of human life. It may 
be asked, How shall we know, of two things, whics 



CONDUCT: OR RIGHT DOING 39 

is the right? It is not always easy to discover. That 
which seemeth right to one may appear entirely wrong 
to another. True. But, if our doing is according to 
our highest convictions, above all prejudice, what more 
can be expected? 

The world may often condemn our actions, may call 
us cranks, fanatics and worse names, but, having 
the approval of our own inherent sense of right, we 
must experience satisfaction and inward approval. 

This is superior to the applause of a multitude in a 
popular, but false, course. 

It sometimes requires a vast deal of courage to ad- 
here to the right in face of adverse circumstances. 
But he, who holds steadfast to the action he feels is 
right and true, under all conditions, is the real hero. 
The great aim should be through all perplexities to 
discover the right and do it. 

Why? 

It makes a pleasant frame of mind, conditions of 
living happier, radiates to others, to the family and to 
society, joy and contentment that they could not re- 
ceive from any system of wrong doing. Right doing 
is growing into the realm of right, where happiness 
and harmony prevail. 

Mary Lyon, the founder and first principal of Mt. 
Holyoke female seminary said — "There is nothing in 
the universe that I fear, but that I shall not know all 
my duty, or shall fail to do it. " 

The true test of courage is, in all circumstances, to 
dare to do right. 

"His life is long whose work is well 
And be his station low or high; 
He who the most good works can tell, 
Lives longest though he soonest die. 



4Q RIGHT LIVING 

Then, as the sweet-winged moments speed, 

Freight them with wealth of truth and worth; 
With garnered sheaves of thought and deed, 

For the glad harvest home on earth. 
Sow love and taste its fruitage sweet, 

Sow smiles and see the desert spring, 
Sow wisdom for the harvest meet, 

Sow sunshine for the joy 'twill bring." 

There is one rule that has been proven in every in- 
stance. 

It will hold good forever. 

Its practice makes no one worse, and it never loses 
its power for the right. It is this: "£>o unto others 
as ye would that others should do unto you. " 

Another excellent rule is the following: — Strive to 
do well, to do the best possible, and rejoice if another 
can do better. 

Pedaratus, an ancient Greek, aspired to the honor 
of being chosen one of the three hundred who held 
a certain rank in Sparta, but was disappointed. He 
converted his disappointment into joy, and said — 
"How glad I am that there are three hundred better men 
i?i Sparta than Pedaratus/ 



VII. 

VIRTUE, THE ILLUMINATOR OF LIFE. 

I ought — I will love whatever is good; not because in this life every 
virtuous deed receives a reward, but, for the sake of the intrinsic ex- 
cellence of virtue. Fichte. 

Virtue alone outbuilds the pyramids: 

Her monuments shall last when Egypt's fall. 

Young. 

What is virtue? Is it not moral goodness? Yea, 
it is more ; it is moral greatness. 

The quality of virtue acts and re-acts. One little 
virtuous deed or thought, expressed, reaches far, and 
blesses not only the one from whom it emanates, but 
everybody else, for its influence is unceasing and om- 
nipotent. 

It is a power, felt and absorbed wherever it touches. 

It invests life with grandeur and glory, and makes 
it worth the living. 

To be virtuous is to be firm and strong. 

It is to be brave, good and true. 

How can the virtues be developed? 

By being virtuous. 

Is it not easier for some to be virtuous than it is 
for others to be so? 

Yes. Some have greater natural love and incli- 
nation for virtue than others. 

To such it is easy to be virtuous, and to walk in the 
41 



42 RIGHT LIVING 

right path. Others have a singular, and seemingly 
natural tendency to vice. There are inherited tenden- 
cies to vice and to virtue. Credit need not be given 
to the one who has natural power to turn from vice, 
for he has exerted no strength in mastering it, but the 
greater triumph is to him who overcometh the natural 
bias, which inclines him to the opposite of virtue. 

We receive much from our ancestors, far more than 
we think. Edgar Fawcett has said: — 

1 'Who sees how vice its venom wreaks 
On the frail babe before it speaks; 
And how heredity enslaves, 
With ghostly hands that reach from graves.' 

You may, perhaps, say: — Society hardly recognizes 
the virtuous person or thinks little of him. At first 
sight, this might seem to be so. One who is loyal to 
goodness, to honor and truth, who loves mercy and 
deals justly, is laughed at, you say, is called "old 
f°gy/' "greenhorn," and "countryman," while he who 
dashes into gayety that borders on wicked paths, who 
recklessly sows many "wild oats" is regarded as a 
"rattler," a "jolly good fellow," a "fine old boy." 

But how is it in the, long run? I'll tell you. 

The virtuous youth in middle age, is found enjoying 
well earned peace and prosperity, while he who was 
known as the "rattler," who cared little for the prac- 
tice of the virtues, is engaged in harvesting, in sorrow 
and dismay, the wild oats that he sowed so lavishly 
in his younger days. Which is more respected now, 
do you think? 

"Must we, then, have no pleasure in life," you ask? 

To be virtuous, it does not follow that one must 
be a recluse, sit all day in meditation, or forego al! 



VIRTUE, ILLUMINATOR OF LIFE 43 

innocent enjoyments. The over-zealous persons who 
cannot enjoy a hearty laugh or enter a frolicsome 
company, are not always the most virtuous. 

It is not a virtue to turn one's back upon legitimate 
pleasures. 

How then shall we show others the way to be virtu- 
ous? 

By each individual being honestly virtuous, him- 
self. Arrian's farewell salutation to Lucius Gellius 
was this: " Be strong. 1 " 

Why practice the virtues? and by that term is meant 
the rules that make the sum of all goodness. Why? 
Because such practice re-acts upon yourself, makes 
you better and happier, makes community and the 
world, nobler and happier, and, when you thus add 
to the sum of human happiness you become a bene- 
factor of the race. 

"O, you expect us to be perfect," I hear you say. 

Not at all. No one is absolutely perfect. All are 
guilty of mistakes. 

The fact that all do slip, sometime, in one way or 
another, establishes more fully the fact of human 
brotherhood, and calls for the help and sympathy that 
each can give. 

It may be hard to keep the standard of virtue, al- 
ways in sight. 

It is not to be supposed^ that any one living a hu- 
man life ever did, not even our fathers and mothers. 
They were once boys and girls ; having passed through 
the experience we are now experiencing, their knowl- 
edge can point the way for us. The information they 
may give can make our way pleasant and delightful, 
by showing how to avoid the shoals and quicksands. 



44 RIGHT LIVING 

that, if we go too near, will bring us to wreck and 
ruin. 

Can one turn from vice to virtue? 

Of course. 

Any time? 

Certainly. 

Can there be any monopoly of virtue? 

Never. 

Is there any sex to virtue? 

No. 

Should we expect a man to be less virtuous than a 
woman? 

It is wrong to carry any such expectation. The 
same virtue and nobility of character expected of wo- 
man, should be demanded of men. 

The world has no right to exact more of virtue from 
one sex than from the other. There would be a much 
better state of society and better morals, if the vir- 
tues were practiced by both sexes alike. 

Virtue means, if it means anything, the realization 
of real happiness. Said Seneca long ago, "Misfort- 
unes, losses and calumny, disappear before virtue as 
the taper before the sun." 

Therefore, be virtuous. Troubles and sorrows -may 
encompass you, but the steady shining light of virtue 
shows the clear unobstructed path, leading out of dark- 
ness, into the realm of peace. Does it mean self- 
denial, a putting aside some things that are craved? 

There may be pain at first, but joy followeth. Ne 
one was ever sorry for leaning to the side of virtue. 



VIII. 

PRUDENCE, AN ECONOMY OF LIFE. 

Prudence is the virtue of the senses. 

Emerson. 

We often see persons who are termed headstrong. 
They rush heedlessly along, helter skelter, heels over 
head, as the saying is, and careless of consequences. 
They are often at fault, often in mischief, not really 
because they are vicious, for they are not, or morally 
bad, or inclined to the wrong, but rather they are so 
quick to act upon impulse, that they precipitate upon 
the evil without consideration, or, we might say, al- 
most, if not quite, accidentally. 

Not pausing a moment, to think of what may fol- 
low, they are constantly in some scrape or another, 
and, thus, without intention, they bring disaster and 
shame upon themselves and friends. 

Such persons do not possess prudence in any great 
degree. If they did they would act more carefully. 

Prudence is simply foresight. It is the faculty that 
enables one to see beforehand, that which the future 
has to disclose. For example, here is a family, who, 
through sickness and reverses, have become destitute. 
By and by, health regained, they arrive to better fortune. 
Business is good and money comes in freely. To 
spend the gains lavishly, in the purchase of trinkets, 
gew gaws, foolishly buying every little fanciful article 
45 



46 RIGHT LIVING 

that falls in the way, expending every dollar as soon as 
earned, would hardly denote prudence or foresight, 
would it? 

For, as likely as not, sickness, ill-health may come 
again, work may be dull, and the family may be 
plunged once more into depths of misfortune with no 
means to cope with the new trouble. The prudent 
person would, having been careful, and saving some- 
what of his means, feel that he had, by his prudence, 
prepared for any exigency that might arrive. And, 
indeed, if he and his, still move on in health and 
strength, some neighbor or friend may be in a strait 
to require the very aid that he, by his prudence, is 
prepared to extend. 

Prudence enables us to think twice, even three times 
before acting. 

Rashness seldom produces happy results, but Pru- 
dence can hardly lead one astray. 

Is it not better to think calmly of that which may 
follow our actions, than to act first and contemplate 
afterward — to act hastily and spend a lifetime in 
repenting the action? 

No one will deny it. 

Cleobulus, an old philosopher said, many years ago: 
"Before you go home, think what you have to do; 
when you come home, examine yourself and consider 
whether you have done all well." 

Why should we be prudent and careful? 

Because, if we observe, we see plainly that such a 
course puts us in a good condition to be happy, and 
also contributes to the happiness of others. By a 
prudent course in our daily life, we make an example 
fit for others to follow. The right is what we are 
always to aim at. . 



PRUDENCE, AN ECONOMY OF LIFE 47 

There is a common saying attributed to Davy Crock- 
ett, and a very good one it is, too. It is this: "Be 
sure you're right — then go ahead. " It never does harm 
to, stop and consider. Dr. Hitchcock was once set- 
tled as a preacher in the town of Sandwich, on Cape 
Cod. When, upon one occasion, he was to exchange 
with a Plymouth minister he had to pass through a 
nine miles wilderness called Plymouth woods. Trav- 
elers most always got lost in these woods, and would 
come out just where they started from. Dr. H. on 
entering with some misgivings, this stretch of wood, 
met an old lady and asked her to give him some di- 
rections for getting through the forest so as to fetch 
up at Plymouth, his destination, instead of Sandwich. 

"Certainly," said the old lady, "I will tell you all 
about it with pleasure. You will just keep right on 
till you get some ways into the woods and then you 
will come to a place where several roads branch off 
from the road you are traveling. Then, you must 
stop and consider, and take the one that seems to you 
most likely to bring you out right." 

He followed her directions and came out right. 

Thus, in human life, the way is frequently, and in- 
deed, we might say, always a tangled wilderness, with 
many paths and diverging road-ways. There are scrub 
oaks and briars, poison ivy tendrils, stone walls, fall- 
en trees, creeks, muddy hollows, deep ravines and 
many blind roads, many roads, that followed, take us 
the wrong way, or bring us out no-where. 

In the intricacies of the forest of the world, unless 
we have a good chart, we are apt to be lost, not only 
once, but several times, before we get out of the 
woods. 



4 8 RIGHT LIVING 

In all our travels through life's wilderness it is the 
correct thing to do, to take the sensible advice of the 
wise old woman of the Plymouth labyrinthine woods 
— stop and consider. 

In the end it saves much pain and trouble. 



IX. 

WHAT KNOW YE OF JUSTICE? 

But the sunshine yet shall light the sky, 

As round and round we run, 
And the truth shall ever come uppermost 

And justice shall be done. Massey. 

Be just and fear not. Shakespeare. 

It is certainly better to be just than unjust. You 
know it. All know, too, that it is better to deal fairly 
and justly, and wrong to do otherwise. How do they 
know it? They know it by the result of just arid 
unjust acts. 

Then, what is justice? It is simply doing the square 
thing, the being upright and honorable, the dealing 
as you would be dealt by. Justice is simply doing 
right, and approval goes hand in hand with such do- 
ing. There is the inward knowledge that always 
proclaims a true fact, the consciousness of a correct 
deed. But that which seems just to one may appear 
absolutely unjust to another. Why is this? 

It arises from wrong methods of education, a false 
notion of morality, the clinging to old prejudices and 
deferring to the records of an age of ignorance, instead 
of to the light of the present, by which we should al- 
ways try to guide our lives. 

Justice is clear-seeing. It is clear-seeing to know 
justice, and to place it where it belongs by right. No 
49 



50 RIGHT LIVING 

word is so much abused as the word justice. While 
all men applaud justice, few, comparatively, are will- 
ing to accord it on all occasions. 

Why? Because men are selfish, and permit selfish- 
ness to obscure justice. Otway said, "Justice is lame 
as well as blind, amongst us." Is that true? No. 
Justice is always the same, but those who are supposed 
to administer justice — they are lame and blind and 
deaf. Hence the wrong. 

Justice is a noble factor of government, when al- 
lowed to be in force. It is grand in social, political, 
moral life; it is great in home and school life. 

The shame is that justice does not prevail — that it 
is not given its own place. 

If, in all cases, human beings understood and prac- 
ticed the law of universal justice, people would be 
more moral, truer to themselves and to all. No one 
would impose upon another, or seek to injure his 
neighbor or friend. 

The principle of justice is unchanging. Cicero said 
that "the universal, immutable and eternal law of all 
intelligent beings is to promote the happiness of one 
another, like children of the same father. 

If we once become imbued with this feeling it will 
be impossible to be unjust or unfair in our behavior 
toward each other. 

Would you not think this the proper feeling for 
individuals to sustain in all relations of life? Yes. 

Then, should it not be our one great concern to be 
fair, square, honest, upright and just in all our deal- 
ings? If we err, and are unjust, not intending, how- 
ever, so to be, it is our first duty to rectify our mis- 
take. 



WHAT KNOW YE OF JUSTICE? $1 

The law of justice is certain in the end, and sure. 

Nature administers her laws imperatively. 

Not a rule of hers can be transgressed, that is not 
overtaken, soon or late, by justice, and her penalties 
are sure and severe. Should we not then be careful 
to learn her ways and obey her laws, knowing that, 
if disobeyed, justice is sure to administer the lash? 
For nobody desires suffering. Reward follows action ; 
if right, the reward of happiness and content, and, if 
wrong, justice is sure to come with a scourge. "But," 
you will say, "people are unjust to me. I suffer from 
the injustice of others." 

What of that? Rise superior to others. Time brings 
its own revenges, or, rather its retribution. 

It is for you to be stronger and nobler than the one 
who could be unjust. 

It is not the finest quality of greatness that renders 
injustice for injustice. 

True manhood is to be just and kind to those who 
are unjust and unkind. 

Therefore, practice justice. 

It is the way to goodness, honor, strength and 
length of days. 

A beautiful story is told that in one of the old 
cities of Italy the king caused a bell to be hung in a 
tower in one of the public squares, and called it a 
"Bell of Justice," and commanded that any one who 
had been wronged should go and ring the bell and so 
call the magistrate of the city, and ask and receive jus- 
tice. 

And when, in course of time, the bell rope rotted 
away, a wild vine was tied to it to lengthen it. One 
day an old and starving horse, that had been aban- 



52 RIGHT LIVING 

doned by its owner and turned out to die, wandered 
into the tower, and in trying to eat the vine rang the 
bell. The magistrate of the city, coming to see who 
rang the bell, found this old and starving horse. He 
caused the owner of the horse, in whose service he 
had toiled and been worn out, to be summoned before 
him, and decreed that, as this poor horse had rung 
the bell of justice, he should have justice, and that 
during the horse's life his owner should provide for 
him proper food, drink, and stable. 

He who loves justice will be honest with himself 
and with everybody else. Justice is of inestimable 
value. Said Socrates — "Whatever inconvenience en- 
sue nothing is to be preferred before justice." 



X. 

FORTITUDE, A NOBLE POSSESSION. 

To bear whatever comes with a brave mind and closed lips is a 
symbol of greatness. Anon. 

It requires a mind of strong fibre to suffer in silence 
and grow strong through suffering; to bear insult and 
injury without exhibition of passion or outburst of 
anger. 

It is fortitude that enables one to do that; it is a 
fine quality, and those who do not possess it should 
try to acquire it. It is a great possession. 

Why? 

Because it is helpful all the way through life, help- 
ful in sickness and in health, in sorrow and grief, in 
reverses of fortune and perils of pain, in adherence to 
right, under all persecuting influences. 

It gives strength and power. It is strength itself. 

It enables one to face any foe, grapple with any 
wrong, endure any privation and bear with equanimity 
all suffering for the right. 

It helps its possessor to be firm under all difficul- 
ties, to be brave under all circumstances. 

If none had this sterling trait, it may be plainly 
seen that in the event of a great conflagration, in a 
severe panic or riot, or a sudden calamity of any kind, 
how difficult it would be to maintain order and disci- 
pline. People would run this way and that, unable to dp. 
53 



54 RIGHT LIVING 

or know, the proper thing, or the right way to turn. 
No one could be able to direct, guide or preserve the 
peace in an emergency, without fortitude. 

The Spartans were taught fortitude under all con- 
ditions, and some the most trying. When their sons 
went into battle, Spartan mothers were accustomed to 
say to them in parting — "Return with your shield or 
on it." Not to exhibit fortitude was considered a 
mark of weakness most unworthy. 

What fortitude the old martyrs must have had when 
the} 7 went to the stake without flinching, to be burned. 
They were buoyed up by hope of reward hereafter, it 
is true, but, even in that case, their fortitude was re- 
markable. Others have been burned for opinion's 
sake, who did not possess this hope of future reward, 
as Giordano Bruno, who met his death in the same 
cruel way for the sake of a fact in nature, a truth as 
revealed to him, and, which he could not deny, a 
truth which is now universally accepted. Galileo did 
not have fortitude as some others; therefore, he re- 
canted to save his life, although knowing the princi- 
ple at stake, to be true. Socrates could go to the 
grave smiling and undaunted, feeling that the princi- 
ples he died for were true. There are many instances 
on record of unequaled fortitude in the suffering for 
the sake of a truth, or for belief in a fact of nature. 

There are many modern instances of fortitude, show- 
ing that the faculty always exists, deeper and stronger 
in some than in others. When one has fortitude to 
endure great agony that others may be saved from 
suffering, that person becomes a hero. The telegraph 
operator who remained at her post during the rising of 
the flood at Johnstown, Pa., facing death all the 



FORTITUDE, A NOBLE POSSESSION 55 

while, was a woman of most remarkable fortitude. 
She stood firmly at her post, and did she not arise to 
the height and grandeur of a saint upon earth, when 
she, with firm hand, telegraphed her last word? "This 
is my last message. Fly for your lives." The sen- 
tences went swiftly to the stricken ones, and she, the 
faithful, the brave-hearted, floated down to the jaws of 
death. She was as true a heroine as ever breathed 
the breath of life, and her memory will be wreathed 
in glory forever more. 

So fortitude is a leading virtue. 

It is nerve. 

It is the mother of unselfishness and devotion to 
duty. 

It is told of Epictetus who was a slave of Epaphro- 
ditus that, one day the master began twisting the leg 
of his slave. Epictetus said: "If you go on you will 
break my leg." Epaphroditus persisted, and, sure 
enough, did break the leg. Epictetus, with unruffled 
serenity, only said, — "Did I not tell you that you 
would break my leg?" 

Few could bear such treatment so bravely and hero- 
ically. While it is hoped none of us may feel com- 
pelled to endure such treatment, it is yet the mark of 
true manhood and noble womanhood to accept what- 
ever may come to us with becoming fortitude, at 
the same time aiming to better our conditions in all 
honest ways, and by all true methods. 



XL 

TEMPERANCE AND INTEMPERANCE. 

It costs more to feed a vice than to satisfy a family. Balzac. 

Temperance means a moderate exercise of the nat- 
ural appetites and passions. Their immoderate exer- 
cise is intemperance. 

We may be intemperate in eating and drinking, 
and, in many other ways also; and thus bring disease, 
pain, penury, want and suffering upon ourselves and 
our friends, because our friends suffer when they see 
us in pain. Hence, in order to preserve health and 
happiness, the wise person will not be immoderate in 
the exercise of any passion, appetite, or faculty of his 
being. 

As commonly understood in these days, when the 
word temperance is used, it is in reference to alcoholic 
liquors, their use and effect upon the human system. 
People say temperance when they mean total absti- 
nence. And, in reference to alcohol in any form as a 
beverage, total abstinence is always best. 

Back of alcohol is a great charnel-house, wherein 
lie buried in countless numbers, the fairest and bright- 
est hopes of humanity. 

You have all witnessed the effects of intemperance 

in some form, and can verify that which is said of it. 

You can testify from your own observation, for no vice 

is more common than intemperance, that it is the de- 

56 



TEMPERANCE AND INTEMPERANCE 57 

stroyer of mental and moral powers. It makes man 
an idiot and wild brute. Nothing acts upon the brain 
quicker than alcohol. It is an agent of destruction, 
and its message is, sooner or later, death. 

Alcohol, pure, is a deadly poison. Why do not 
people die immediately, then, from its effects? Be- 
cause it is so largely diluted with water. This saves 
many a life from sudden dissolution. One half ounce 
of undiluted alcohol means instant death. The work 
of alcoholic drink begins at once upon the cellular 
tissue of the brain, paralyzing for the time being, the 
delicate and sensitive nerves, so that the whole body 
slips from the control of the sovereign mind — the 
limbs sway and totter, the passions uncontrolled, run 
riot, the moral forces are checked, and, until the 
effects subside, the man becomes a blear-eyed, red- 
faced, slavering, disgusting fool, or else a wild, ter- 
rific, frightful maniac. The most dreadful crimes are 
committed under the influence of this giant, Alcohol, 
this demon that drives men into the worst abysses of 
shame, disease, crime, poverty and idiocy. 

Chemists tell us that the active agent of alcohol, 
and, which does all the mischief, is the excrement of 
a minute microbe, a little animal, too small to exam- 
ine, except by a microscope, and a virulent poison. 
Neither children, men or women, have any business 
with it, except for mechanical or preserving purposes. 
As a drink taken into the human stomach, it is a 
monstrous wrong and evil. 

The only safety is in letting it alone. 

There is a fable that the rats once assembled in a 
large cellar to devise some method of safely getting 
the bait from a steel trap near by, having seen num- 



58 RIGHT LIVING 

bers of their friends and relatives snatched from them 
by its merciless jaws. After many long speeches and 
the proposal of many elaborate but fruitless plans, 
a happy wit, standing erect, said: 

"It is my opinion that if, with one paw we can keep 
down the spring we can safely take B the food from the 
trap with the other." 

All the rats present squealed assent. Then they 
were startled by a faint voice, and a poor old rat with 
only three legs, limping painfully into the ring, stood 
up to speak: — "My friends," said he, "I have tried 
the method you propose, and you see the result. Now, 
let me suggest a plan to escape the trap. Let it 
alone!" 

Certainly, it is best to let liquor alone. Every 
good reason in the world is against its use as a bev- 
erage. You are to come into the business of the 
world, to be a part and portion of social, political 
and business life, to fill the offices and positions of 
trust and importance, to plead in halls of justice, to 
act in legislatures and in the congresses of nations, 
to do the work of the world, in some one or other de- 
partment, and all work, lowly or lofty, is worthy and 
noble. 

It is your bounden duty that you come to these 
places of trust, with a clear, cool head, a fine, healthy 
brain, a sound body. You are to stand for right, 
truth, honor and justice. You are to represent moral 
goodness in all its forms. How can you do that? How 
can you perform your work in life, if you come to it 
with a brain soaked and paralyzed by alcohol, with 
a mind stupid and wavering from its effects? 

When General Harrison was running for the Presi- 



TEMPERANCE AND INTEMPERANCE 59 

dency he stopped at the old Washington House in 
Chester, one day for dinner. After dinner was served 
it was noticed that the General pledged his toast in 
water, and one of the gentlemen present in offering 
another said: "General, will yon not favor me by drink- 
ing a glass of wine?" 

The general refused in a pleasant manner. Again 
he was urged to join in a glass of wine, and still again. 
He then rose from the table, his tall form erect, and 
in a most dignified manner, replied: 

"Gentlemen, I have twice refused to partake of the 
wine cup. That should have been sufficient. Though 
you press the cup to my lips, not a drop shall pass 
the portals. I made a resolve when I started in life 
that I would avoid strong drink, and 1 have never 
broken it. I am one of a class of seventeen young men 
who graduated, and the other sixteen fill drunkard's 
graves — all through the pernicious habit of wine- 
drinking. I owe all my health, happiness and pros- 
perity to that resolution. Will you urge me now?" 

"Oh, you can drink or let it alone," says some per- 
son. "One needn't make a fool of himself with strong 
drink, unless he chooses." 

This is false teaching. 

Alcohol is an insidious foe, creeping upon one un- 
awares. 

It resists the strongest will; if admitted once, twice 
and thrice, there is no telling the end. 

It was never intended by Nature, as a beverage. 

"All of those who, in youth acquire a habit of drinking 
whiskey," said Judge Quay, upon one occasion, when 
he was delivering a temperance address, "at forty years 
will be total abstainers or drunkards. No one can 



60 RIGHT LIVING 

use whisky in moderation, If there is a person in 
the audience before me whose experience disputes 
this, let him make it known. I will account for it, 
or acknowledge that I am mistaken." 

A tall man arose, and folding his arms in a digni- 
fied manner across his breast, said : "I offer myself as 
one whose own experience contradicts your state- 
ment." 

"Are you a moderate drinker?" asked the judge. 

"I am." 

"How long have you drank in moderation?" 

"Forty years." 

"And you were never intoxicated?" 

"Never." 

"Well," remarked the judge, scanning his subject 
closely from head to foot, "yours is a singular case, 
, yet I think it is easily accounted for. I am reminded 
by it of a little story. A colored man, with a loaf of 
bread and a flask of whisky sat down to dine by the 
bank of a clear stream. In breaking the bread some 
of the crumbs dropped into the water. These were 
eagerly seized and eaten by the fish. The circum- 
stance suggested to the colored man the idea of dip- 
ping the bread in the whiskey and feeding it to them. 
He tried it; it worked well. Some of the fish ate it, 
became drunk and lay helpless on the water. By this 
stroke of strategy he caught a great number. But in 
the stream was a large fish quite unlike the rest. He 
partook freely of the bread and whiskey, but with no 
perceptible effect; he was shy of every effort of the 
colored man to take it. He resolved to have it at all 
hazards, that he might learn its name and nature. He 
procured a net, and after much effort caught it, car- 



TEMPERANCE AND INTEMPERANCE 61 

ried it to a neighbor, and asked his opinion of the 
matter. The other surveyed the wonder for a mo- 
ment, and then said, '1 understand this case. That 
fish is a mullet-head — it hasn't any brains.' In other 
words," added the judge, "alcohol affects chiefly the 
brain, and of course, those having none may drink 
without injury!" 

The storm of laughter that followed, drove the mod- 
erate drinker suddenly from the house. 

The lesson is obvious. If you would live rightly, 
live temperately. If you would have a clear, cool 
brain, do not clog its cells with alcohol. 

Be abstemious that you may be happy. Nine tenths 
of the crimes, and the worse forms of disease, may be 
traced directly, or indirectly, to the undue use of al- 
coholic stimulants. 

The use of such does not accord with right living or 
noble thinking. 



XII. 

IS THE USE OF TOBACCO DANGEROUS? 

Thou art, indeed, the drug a gardener wants 

To poison vermin that infests his plants. Cowper. 

Has tobacco anything to do with morals? Yes, it 
has very much to do with morals, more than you 
think. It impairs the power of the will. 
How can that be? 

Have you never seen one addicted to the habit of 
tobacco using, when he has been urged to abandon it, 
who has said, "I would, do so, but it has such a hold 
on me that I positively cannot do it." Thus, the 
action of the will is so far injured that the otherwise 
free man becomes a slave. And, certainly we should 
beware of that which destroys in any degree, the free- 
dom of the will. 

Tobacco lulls and dulls the sensibilities, blunts the 
moral nature ; in many cases where used excessively, 
acting as an intoxicant. 

It is the next door neighbor to rum-drinking. 
It is an active poison and, at first, the stomach re- 
jects it as a foreign and offensive object, causing sick- 
ness and nausea. 

Physicians are free to say that it is a prolific cause 
of disease and death. 

It injures and disarranges the nervous system, 
makes those who use it cross, peevish, snappish and 
62 



IS THE USE OF TOBACCO DANGEROUS? 63 

snarling, often paralyzing some part of the body, 
weakens energy of mind, and, in some cases, predis- 
poses to softening of the brain. Dr. Drysdale has 
said, and he is sustained by all intelligent physicians, 
that tobacco causes blindness, palpitation of the heart, 
paralysis, disease of the stomach, cancer of mouth, 
lips, tongue, throat and stomach." It is undoubtedly 
true that the death of General Grant, the idol of the 
American nation, was caused by tobacco. He was an 
inveterate smoker, and died of cancer. 

Tobacco is a taint upon the constitution of children 
before they are born, if parents are habitual users of 
the pernicious weed. 

Dr. Rush said, at one time, that "were it possible 
for a being who has resided on this globe to visit the 
inhabitants of a planet where reason governed, and to 
tell them that a vile weed was in use among the peo- 
ple of the globe he had left, which afforded no nourish- 
ment, that this weed was cultivated with immense 
care; that it was an important article of commerce; 
that the use of it produced much real misery; that 
its taste was extremely nauseous; that it was unfriend- 
ly to health, and that the use of it was attended with 
a considerable loss of time and property — the account 
would be thought incredible." 

"But why was it made, if not to use?" is often asked. 

Why was it made? Why was belladonna, stramo- 
nium made?- These are active poisons and belong to 
the same order as tobacco. They are medicinal in 
their qualities as is tobacco, and the place of the latter 
is with the former — in the medicine chest.. 

No animal will touch it unless we except the creat- 
ure called the rock goat who eats it like clover. But 



64 RIGHT LIVING 

his nerves are like iron, and he can do so with impu- 
nit}'. 

Tobacco poisons the soil in which it grows and ren- 
ders it unfit to produce wheat, corn or any of the food 
products. 

Every woman in the land should abhor tobacco, 
for, from the beginning, it has been one of her most 
troublesome and disgusting foes. The first exporta- 
tion of tobacco from this country was for the pur- 
chase of white women for wives. Ninety respectable 
women were imported from England to the Colony at 
Jamestown, Va., and sold to the Jamestown planters 
at the rate of one hundred and twenty lbs. of tobacco 
each. In 1621 seventy more women were sent over 
and sold for wives, and the price paid was in tobacco. 
Women have suffered much from this poison. 

It is a costly habit and consumes a great deal of 
money, that might be given to much better uses. A 
prominent contractor who does business all over the 
state has employed a crew of twelve men for six 
months, and on reckoning up matters preparatory to 
a final settlement for the year the following figures 
were brought to light: Ten of the twelve used tobacco, 
and the bill for plug tobacco for these ten men was 
more than the flour bill for the entire crew. The men 
consumed fifty-three dollars worth of tobacco outside 
of cigars, and got along with but fifty-one dollars 
worth of flour. The fact seems incredible, and yet it is 
verily the truth. 

The use of tobacco is a disagreeable and filthy hab- 
it, exceedingly repulsive to those who have no liking 
for its use, or, who dread its poisonous effects. So dis- 
tasteful is it to those who know better than to use it, 



IS THE USE OF TOBACCO DANGEROUS? 65 

that railway corporations have been obliged to carry on 
all trains, a special car for the smokers and chewers, in 
which they travel by themselves, so as not to be an 
annoyance to others by their filthy practices. With- 
out other argument, it may be plainly seen that to- 
bacco using is a disease-breeding, uncleanly, immoral 
habit, a vice that for health's sake, as well as decency, 
should be abolished. Why is it a vice? Is not that 
a vice that controls your labor, snatches your time, 
makes you selfish, and destroys your money and your 
health? 

There is one great arch-enemy of the human race — 
it is intoxicating liquor; the next great tyrant, en- 
slaver and enemy, is tobacco. 

Criminal reports show that every six thousand out 
of nine thousand in jails and prisons, trace their down- 
fall to being first, smokers of tobacco and then, 
drinkers of alcoholic stimulants. 

Every one is a personal example to somebody else. 
It is your duty to show, by your own example, the 
duty of others. You have no right to injure yourself 
by disease, or to make yourself an offense to anyone. 
That which is true of tobacco and alcohol, is as true 
of opium, chloral, arsenic and cocaine? These drugs 
act upon the nerves and the brain, and are to be 
shunned as deadly poisons. None of these are food 
products, and contribute in no way to the well-being 
of a person in health; but they do diminish muscular 
strength, injure the nerves and hurt the brain. Nat- 
ure speaks always against their use, and soon or late, 
will bring in her bill against the user of these narcotics. 
Be clean. 



XIII. 

CULTIVATION OF INDIVIDUALITY. 

Be thyself. Denton. 

Honor to him who self-complete, alone, 

Carves to the grave a pathway, all his own, 

And, heeding not what others think or say, 

Asks but himself if doubtful of the way. Bulwer. 

Is it true that we are too apt to be copies of one 
another. Yes, it is true. We are imitators, and not 
originators. 

It would appear, almost, at first sight, as if it were 
dangerous to walk a different path from the accepted 
highway. Yet there are many short-cuts across lots 
that bring one to town sooner than following the beat- 
en track. But we go as others go. We do as others 
do, without thinking whether it be right or not. 

Deviating somewhat from the well-worn way, one 
is apt to be frightened, and to fear he is lost. 

Yet, we do not live to be exact copies of each 
other. Originality of action, of speech, of thought, 
is the necessity of the world. 

Great men and great women of this, or of any period 
of the world's history, are always those of striking 
characteristics, of strong individuality. Said General 
Jackson on one occasion, "I will take the responsibil- 
ity!" General Jackson stands out like a giant oak 
66 



CULTIVATION OF INDIVIDUALITY 67 

amid the lowly scrubs and wandering vines of a 
burned forest. 

Henry Clay becomes invested with the moral gran- 
deur of a Hercules, glowing and brilliant as one of 
the most beautiful stars in the firmament, when he 
is thought of in connection with his immortal utterance, 
— "I would rather be right than be President!" Gar- 
rison, filled and thrilled with the justice of a cause 
that he knew to be right, sent forth the flaming words 
that will live forever, and will forever shine with 
undiminished luster: "I will be as harsh as truth, and 
as uncompromising as justice. I am in earnest. I will 
not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will not retreat 
an inch; and I will be heard." 

These men are examples of strong individuality. 
They left their mark, each, upon the nation. 

To think for one's self, to always endeavor to act 
from one's own honest convictions of truth is the 
duty of all. It may lead sometimes to discussion, pos- 
sibly, to some difficulties, complications, troubles of 
various kinds, for those who imitate, as a class, are 
quick to find fault, quick to take exceptions to one 
of pronounced individuality, especially, if he gives to 
the people a new truth. To be original in thought 
and expression, you fear may make you unpopular. 

Fear not to be thought unpopular. It is the some- 
time unpopular men and women who have made this 
world a good place to live in. The term "unpopular" 
is the crown of thorns woven by the ignorant and un- 
thinking, that, eventually, changes into a wreath of 
roses and laurel. To be ground into the dust by a 
furious mob to day, means grace and glory to-morrow. 

It may be readily seen why we should strive for in- 



68 RIGHT LIVING 

dividuality. It is right that each should be his own 
self and not the copy of another. It is a belonging 
of nature. 

Each plant, shrub, tree, flower or blade of grass 
grows true to its individual character. Each man, 
woman, child, is individualized. Of all the millions 
on earth, no two are just alike. 

We must make our own moral standard of that 
which is right, and cling to that, in spite of all oppo- 
sition. Why? Because thus we are showing that we 
have character, originality, purpose in living, and 
more than all, we make an example safe for others to 
follow. 

Individuality gives personal beauty, even to plain 
features. One who is imbued with great independ- 
ence stands out from among his fellows. He is a 
leader. He helps to mould the times in which he 
lives. He is a builder. By him individuals arise to 
higher altitudes. He is an inspirer. He is a strong- 
hold. He is an uplifter of the race. 
"How happy is he born or taught, 
Who serveth not another's will; 
Whose armor is his honest thought, 
And simple truth his highest skill; 

Whose passions not his masters are; 

Whose soul is still prepared for death; 
Not tied unto the world with care 

Of public fame or private breath. 

This man is freed from servile bands 

Of hope to rise or fear to fall; 
Lord of himself, though not of lands, 

And having nothing yet hath all." 

The strongly individualized character inspires others 
with energy and confidence. 



CUL TIVA TION OF INDIVID UAIITY 69 

Individuality is the marked characteristic of free 
men. Without it, society suffers, business stagnates 
and nations become weak. All great reforms, all pro- 
gression, is due to the individualized characters of 
men who thought independently of established forms 
and usages. 

To individualize character should be a part of all 
teaching, and all learning. 

It is not so much what the text-books give, that we 
are to apply to living, but the power to think and 
reason for ourselves; right action, good conduct, self- 
reliance, self-control, self-respect, the ability to judge 
properly, the unfolding of the faculty of independ- 
ence, how to shape our lives that all resulting conduct 
may be for our highest welfare, and the welfare of 
those around us. 

Goethe and Eckermann were once in conversation 
at Weimar upon the advantage Englishmen seemed 
to hold over some other nations. Goethe said, "It is 
very strange and 1 know not whether it lies in mere 
race, in climate and soil, or in their healthy condition, 
but certainly Englishmen seem to have a great advant- 
age over most other men. We see here in Weimar 
only a minimum of them, and those, probably, by no 
means the best specimens, and yet what splendid fel- 
lows they are! And, although they come here as sev- 
enteen-year-old youths, yet, they by no means feel 
stiange in this strange land; on the contrary, their 
entiance and bearing in society is so confident and 
quiet, that one would think they were everywhere 
the masters, and the whole world belonged to them." 
"I should not like to affirm, for all that," replied 
Eckermann, "that the English gentlemen in Weimar 



7o RIGHT LIVING 

are cleverer, better educated, and better-hearted than 
our young men. " 

"That is not the point," said Goethe; "their supe- 
riority does not lie in such things : neither does it lie 
in their birth or fortune; it lies precisely in their hav- 
ing the courage to be what nature made them. There 
is no halfness about them. They are complete men. 
Sometimes, complete fools, also, that I heartily admit; 
but, even that is something and has its weight." 

He who has large individuality comes nearest to 
being a whole man. They who have little individual- 
ity and who go with the crowd, who follow the popu- 
lar tide, are only copies of the throng they follow. 

Said Lessing, to those who would be men : "Think 
wrongly if 'you please, but think for yourself." 



XIV. 

character; a jewel of great price. 

I look upon the simple and childish virtues of veracity and honesty 
as the root of all that is sublime in character. Emerson. 

Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and com- 
plete a character. Goethe. 

Character is quality. Character is what we are. 
Its unfoldment begins at birth — yes, and before birth, 
through our parents. 

We are continually acted upon by the principles of 
inheritance, environment, education, association and 
personal influence of others. 

It is our part to sustain, develop, preserve, through 
all changes, all trials, all defeats, all adverse condi- 
tions, as well as all successes and harmonious rela- 
tions, the best qualities of our being, such as simple 
honesty of purpose, truthfulness, modesty, persever- 
ance, adherence to all that we consider right and 
straightforward. 

Nobody is perfect. 

We each hold a mixture of that which is good and 
bad. 

We are not to suppose any person to be wholly 
good, or entirely evil, for that would be against nature, 
as is seen every day. No one is too good to be im- 
posed upon; no one is so surely given oyer to sin that 
a little good may not be found in him. 
71 



72 RIGHT LIVING 

The trouble is that the good, or that which leads to 
good, in the depraved, is not sought for. 

Reputation does not always represent character. 
Reputation is what society says of us. 

Character is the actual, the real person. Society 
may give one an excellent reputation, while th^ true 
character, as exhibited at home by the fireside, may 
be very foreign to the description accepted by the 
populace outside. Illustrations of this are often seen 
when men are detected in embezzlement, robbery of 
banks, and frauds of various kinds. Outwardly they 
bore the most unblemished reputation, yet were 
engaged in wrong-doing for years, unsuspected on ac- 
count of their apparent goodness, which was a falsity 
throughout. The inward life, the character was vile. 
This, however, was carefully concealed from all eyes, 
and hence they were enabled to deceive the public, 
until it was no longer possible. Then, the knowledge 
of the character came like a thunderbolt out of a clear 
sky, falling with startling force upon a community 
that had fully believed in the integrity of the person. 
His conduct is spoken of as a sad downfall. But in 
reality the downfall has been all along, only it was 
not known. The character was bad. 

Every act we do, every thought we think, goes to 
form character. 

We speak of a man of good character, and, it is 
understood at once that it is he who conforms to the 
laws of the land, observes the moral laws as well, and 
does, in a word, that which his conscience tells is 
right and just. 

He who deals justly, loves mercy, and tries, accord- 
ing to his circumstances, to make happiness wherever 
he goes, is certainly a man of good character. 



CHARACTER; A JEWEL OF GREAT PRICE 73 

A man of bad character impresses us at once, and in- 
stantly, as one who does not obey the laws, social, civil 
or moral, does not strive to create happiness, or care for 
the well-being of any one except himself. Sometimes, 
the mistake is made, in calling one who does not be-, 
lieve exactly as we do, or does not conform to our 
methods, a person of bad character. This is altogether 
wrong, as you see at once. Such may be just as good 
as another whom we may think highly of, because he 
agrees with us in our views. He may have his own 
ideas of things, and decline to follow in our line, yet 
in the end, he may accomplish more good than we 
ourselves. 

We often hear the terms "crank," "fanatic," "extre- 
mist," and words of like import used as a sneer or slur 
against good, honest, well-meaning individuals. The 
character of these may be above reproach, but they 
are ostracised on account of some opinion different 
from the common run. 

It sometimes happens that these very cranks and 
fanatics, may possess the one thing wanted to make 
humanity happier, and really are the benefactors of 
society. For example, the martyrs, the inventors, the 
reformers of all ages, despised by the age in which 
they lived, have in the next epoch been almost deified 
and idolized. 

"Thus the demons of our sires 
Become the saints whom we adore." 

Instead of "cranks," those who bring other truths ' 
to the surface should be termed Originals, and ought 
to be treated with respect and kindness, as indeed, 
should every human creature. 

Staunch character is the need of all cities, towns 



74 RIGHT LIVING 

and villages. Why? Because good character is that 
which makes all places and all people better. 

We should endeavor to keep the best character pos- 
sible. 

Our conduct is far-reaching. 

It touches here and there, on all sides. 

One act stretches and spreads in ever widening cir- 
cles, on and on, until its end is lost in still larger 

ways. 

"We are builders and each one 

Should cut and carve as best he can, 
Every life is but a stone, 

Every one shall hew his own, 
Make or mar shall every man." 

Is it not more pleasing to live in a community with 
men and women of good character, than with the evil- 
disposed and vile? 

Certainly. 

Do we not always feel better when our acts, — and 
these make character — are good? 

Should it not be our aim, then, to sink, that which 
is low and belittling, that which is an offense and 
hurtful, out of sight, and rise to the heights of true 
nobility and uprightness of character? 

How can it be done? 

By a constant striving after that which we know to 
be good. By aiming at and securing honesty, sobri- 
ety, truth, gentleness, kindness and amiability. 
"Honor and fame from no condition rise — 
Act well your part there all the honor lies." 

How do we grow in character? By the little things 
— the things that seem small in themselves, and of 
little value. 

"We rise by things that are under our feet, 
By what we have mastered of good or gain; 



CHAR A CTER; A JE WEL OF GREA T PRICE 75 

By the pride deposed and passion slain 
And the vanquished ills that we hourly meet." 

We should be reliable, straightforward, faithful to 
all requirements, because experience shows that is the 
best course, best for individuals, best for society. Our 
statements should bear always the seal of truth. The 
man of good character is the honest man, the useful 
member of society, the sterling man. In the family, in 
the community, in business life, everywhere, he is the 
man to be relied upon, the man to be trusted. In pol- 
itics, he is not "on the fence," as the saying is, but he 
is on the side that appears to him right, and in every 
relation of life he is found on the right side, there 
and there only, and no temptation can lure him from it. 



XV. 

idleness; another name for loss. 

Idleness is the greatest prodigality in the world. 

Jeremy Taylor. 

It is astonishing that any one can squander away in absolute idle- 
ness one moment of that smallest portion of time allotted to us in this 
world. Chesterfield 

Idleness means loss. He who is prodigal of time, 
fooling it away, trifling with passing golden moments, 
will some day come to the husks from which the 
kernel has escaped. 

Action is a demand of the times. 

He who is not urged on by the rushing tide of ac- 
tivity is sluggish indeed. 

An Italian philosopher called time his estate It 
is an estate which we all inherit Use it, employ 
its moments, cultivate its vast territory, and you 
have wealth at your command; wealth of knowledge, 
wealth of intellect, wealth of money, wealth of hap- 
piness, and a degree of comfort, unknown without 
such cultivation of this great estate. 

Idleness breeds mischief as well as discontent. 
You know the old proverb — "Satan (evil) finds some 
mischief still for idle hands to do." To keep out of 
mischief, out of harm and harm's way, is then, to be 
employed in useful work 

It is told of an old sea-captain that when on board 
ship there was nothing else to do, he would set his 
76 



IDLENESS; ANOTHER NAME EOR LOSS 77 

men to scour the anchor! They, no doubt, thought 
it a great hardship, but, it may have kept them from 
something worse, perhaps. 

Application is a necessity, and to persist in being 
idle in a world full of work, is the greatest extrava- 
gance of time. 

In the world, is the idle man the successful one? 
No. Is the idle scholar in school the one at the head 
of his class? Never. 

The great advantages of life that bless us to-day 
have been attained not by dullards and idlers, but by 
the workers. Some one has said that there is no such 
thing as great genius, but that which is called genius 
comes from the employment of time in hard work and 
plenty of it. True, there are some dull people who 
seem never to get on. There is always some cause, 
some physical or mental reason for- this. We should 
try and find it, remove it, if possible, and the mind 
will then become active enough. It is told that a 
Spanish boy long tried to master his studies, but all in 
vain. He was dull and idle, too. He seemed to have 
no inclination to study and yet realized the importance 
of learning. At last, driven to despair by the severity 
of his teacher he ran away from his father's home. 

Tired with long wandering and hungry, he sat down 
to rest by the margin of a well, when, suddenly his 
eye was caught by the deep furrow in the stone. A 
girl presently approached to draw a pail of water. 
"What makes the ridge in the stone?" he asked. She 
told him it was made by the constant attrition of the 
rope. The boy looked at it long and reflectively. 
"Now," said he, "if, by daily use, the soft rope can 
thus penetrate the hard stone, surely if I try hard 



7S RIGHT LIVING 

enough, I can overcome the dullness of my brain. He 
rose up, and went back to his father's house and to 
school, labored with redoubled earnestness and all 
diligence. He lived to be the great St. Isadore of 
Spain, and a very learned man. Some who find it hard 
to excel in books, yet have mechanical ingenuity and 
skill in the use of tools. To find the natural bent of a 
child and direct it where Nature seems to point, is 
a great achievement. The best scholars will always 
be those who combine intellectual work with mechan- 
ical labor. 

We are 'in the world to improve ourselves and fill 
time with happy, useful and agreeable employments, 
for, in active endeavor, mental or physical, is true 
happiness. Each one should add to the sum of labor. 

Inertia is death. 

Idleness is cruelty to ourselves and to others. It 
deprives us of the pleasure that arises from well-spent 
time, and adds to the burdens of others, who not only 
do their own work, but ours, too. 

It is the nature of the human being, when well- 
balanced, to employ himself in some occupation, as 
it is also that of lesser creatures, notably the bee and 
the ant, who give many lessons to more intelligent 
beings-. 

To be out of work is to be out of place. 

To be idle is to be indolent. 

In school, the studies seem hard and disagreeable 
to some. They cannot see the use of so much study. 
After a while, though, it will be apparent, and then 
will come useless regrets that time had not been bet- 
ter employed in early years. 

A certain king, it is said, used to regret with great 



IDLENESS; AN 01 HER NAME I OR LOSS 79 

bitterness the deficiency of his education when in com- 
pany with men and women of culture. He reproached 
the memory of those who had indulged him in idle- 
ness, and said, with bitter sarcasm, "Was there not 
birch enough in the forests of Fontainebleau?" 

There are better ways out of idleness than to be 
whipped out. Reason tells us that application, try- 
ing is the only high road out of slothful habits. 

"Oh, papa," said Johnny, "need I go to school? I 
had rather be idle, no, I'd rather play in the forest." 

"John," said the father, "how did we fell the big. 
tree the other day?" 

"A stroke at a time, and keeping at it," answered 
the boy. "Yes, a word at a time and keeping at it 
makes a good reader, a sum at a time and keeping at 
it will make one good at figures. A patient keeping 
at it makes a good scholar. And which is better to 
have around in the school, the house, in the town, in 
the world, the good scholar or the idle boy?" 

"The good scholar, of course," said Johnny. "I 
guess I had better go to school." 

But one needs rest at times. Surely, but there is rest 
in change of employment, not in idleness. Congenial 
occupation is restful and inviting. Despondency is 
often induced by idleness. There is pleasure in labor, 
physical and mental, and the happy individual is he 
or she who finds work of some kind to fill every avail- 
able hour in life. The idle have no place in the busy 
world in which we live to-day. 



XVI. 

INDUSTRY THE STAFF OF LIFE. 

In every rank, or great, or small, 

'Tis industry supports us all. Gay. 

Industry is the mother of success. Without it, the 
world would be a dull and barren place. A most ex- 
cellent training is an industrial one; when coupled 
with moral culture and a good education, one is then 
qualified for a useful, noble and worthy career. 

Without industry there is no absolute and genuine 
growth. The bread we earn by the sweat of the brow 
is the sweetest morsel ever taken into the mouth. 

Industry, work with the hands, is as necessary as 
mental labor. The two should go hand in hand. 

Independence secured by one's own exertion is the 
only real independence. Those who have made this 
world a good place to live in, who have made it agree- 
able for us who live to-day, were, and are, the toilers. 

They who are doing more in the present, toward 
perfecting and glorifying this earth for the children 
who are yet to come, are the workers. 

Shut down the workshops, close the factories, stop 
the steam-engines, block the ports of commerce, cover 
the mines, let the farms run to waste, and we should 
find ourselves in a dead world. 

The millions of men and women who keep the ma- 
80 



INDUSTRY THE STAFF OF LIFE 81 

cbinery upon the globe in action, are the kings and 
queens, worthy to wear the badges of royalty. 

It is not common that the hard workers get into 
sinful ways of living. 

The industrious are the moral, as a rule. 

There seems to be something in work that puts a 
stop to depraved and degraded habits and subdues the 
passions that lead one astray. 

It is when people think they can live above labor 
that depravity and wrong-doing begin to show their 
baleful influences. 

One whose hours are completely filled with honest, 
useful work, and plans for work, (rest even, the best 
rest is tound often in mere change of employment,) 
has little time to devote to evil pursuits. 

The most famous names are names of those who 
commenced, and went through life as willing workers; 
who kept steadily at it through the years, to the end. 

Industry quickens the intellect; hence in the work- 
shops are often found profound thinkers, the peers in 
mental capacity, of members of Parliament or the 
American Congress. 

That industry sharpens the intellectual forces may 
easily be proven. 

When thought is slow, and the mental task puz- 
zling, the student who puts by books and problems, 
and turns to some physical exercise for a couple of 
hours, will find himself refreshed by this relief of the 
mind, and can go back to his books with new energy, 
and accomplish his undertaking without difficulty. 

Try it. 

No employment that is useful and honest should be 
considered menial. Abraham Lincoln split rails in 



82 RIGHT LIVING 

his youth. John Bunyan was a tinker. Benjamin 
Franklin a printer. James Watt and George Stephen- 
son, whose names are associated with the invention of 
the steam-engine, were, the former a worker on math 
ematical instruments, and the latter a fireman on an 
engine. Faraday was a bookbinder. Richard Ark- 
wright was a barber, but he was a great worker, a 
man of wonderful energy and determination, accomp- 
lishing much in the face of many trying obstacles. 
Carlyle was an indefatigable worker, and never gave 
up under any circumstance, however discouraging. 

When Carlyle had finished the first volume of his 
French Revolution, he loaned the MS. to a literary 
neighbor to read and give his opinion of the same. 

By some oversight it slipped from his friend's table 
and was left lying on the floor. Time went on, and 
Carlyle sent for his MS. as the printers were clam- 
orous for "copy." 

On inquiring for the papers, lo, and behold, it was 
found that the serving maid, supposing the precious 
MS. to be only a bundle of waste paper, had taken 
it to light the kitchen and parlor fires with! Imagine 
the consternation of Thomas Carlyle when this answer 
was returned to him! Tongue cannot describe his 
dismay and despair. But what did he do? Sit down 
and repine over it? No. He resolutely turned to and 
re-wrote the whole of it, and this with no draft, only 
the facts and ideas that were stored in his memory. 

In the first place it had been a pleasure to write the 
book; but, it was far from pleasant to write, after such 
a cruel and distressing circumstance. But he applied 
himself to his work and finished it. 

Indomitable energy in the face of adverse influences 



INDUSTRY THE STAFF OF LIFE 83 

is a great faculty to possess, and he who has it ma)' 
well be proud; he who has it not, should strive to 
cultivate it. Energy and industry are the greatest 
helps in the world, to every one. They are the best 
aids to good morals, happy life, the extension of moral 
good and happiness to others. 

The example of our good habits is an incentive to 
others. The tide of industry rushes along its course, 
and he who is not at work steering his own bark, must 
necessarily drift, a shiftless, idle, unhappy creature, 
of no use to himself or any one else. Some think it 
is the mark of a gentleman to do no work. Such is 
not the case, but the reverse. 

When Benjamin Franklin went to England, it is 
said that he took with him a negro servant who was 
much interested in the industrious habits of the peo- 
ple of the country. At Bath he even saw the dogs at 
work turning the spit. 

"Ah," he said, "everything work massa, in dis coun- 
try! Water work, wind work, fire work, smoke work, 
dog work, man work, ox work, horse work, donkey 
work. Everything work but one thing; only one gen- 
tleman in England." 

"And who is the gentleman, Samby?" his master 
asked. 

"De pig, massa. He eat, he drink, he sleep, he do 
nothing all day. He be de only gentleman in England !" 

Zimmerman says, "If industry is no more than hab- 
it, it is an excellent one. If you ask me which is the 
real hereditary sin in human nature, do you imagine I 
shall answer pride, or luxury, or ambition, or egotism? 
No \ I shall say indolence. Who conquers indolence, 
conquers all the rest. All good principles must stag- 
nate without mental activity." 



XVII. 



VALUE OF A TRADE. 



There are two most valuable possessions which no search warrant 
can get at; and which no reverse fortune can destroy: they are what 
a man puts into his head — knowledge, and into his hand — skill. 

Anon 

Many graduates from institutions of learning, find 
to their dismay, that they are quite incapable of earn, 
ing a living. 

There is a great scramble for academic and colle- 
giate honors, but it is a question whether these honors 
are the very best in the world to be striven for or at- 
tained. Are not the avenues demanding this sort of 
knowledge already full and running over with appli- 
cants? 

Many who have spent years in mastering collegiate 
studies are obliged to stand in the background while 
the boy who has secured a trade goes ahead prosper- 
ing, leaving them a long distance behind. 

A great number desire to live without manual labor, 
by brain work alone, hence, the professions requiring 
this kind of work, are overcrowded. The supply is 
greater than the demand. 

A man is rich — he does not wish his son to toil as 
he had to — mistaken idea — he gives him no trade, but 
sends him to college. In course of time he is grad- 
uated, he makes a European tour, comes home, dab- 
84 



VALUE OF A TRADE 85 

bles a little in stocks, dips into politics, maybe, or 
goes into law. Having wealth at his command, he 
has little ambition, and, is distanced by the poor boy 
who comes up by his own exertions. 

In this country, America, there is no real aristoc- 
racy but the aristocracy of labor. There should be 
none other. 

Why should one secure a trade if he has means to 
support himself? Because he has then, something to 
lean upon, something tangible to bring him a living, in 
case his property should take wings, as it is often likely 
to do. Though he may not be obliged to work at his 
trade, even, it is always valuable to have such an ac- 
quisition in cases of emergency, when he can readily 
lend a hand. It is well to know how to do some kind 
of work, and still better to do the work, for the sake 
of health, happiness and physical strength. 

Exercise at some manual labor makes gracefulness 
of limbs, activity of mind and gives moral power and 
support. 

It is as good for the girl, as the boy. 

No one has a right to go into the world of work 
without being fitted and equipped to do his, or her, 
share of it. 

With a trade one goes into the battle of life well 
armed, capable of achieving independence. No one 
should subsist on the bounty of another, unless an in. 
valid or an imbecile. In such cases it cannot be 
avoided. - 

The streets would be less crowded with the idle and 
the vicious, young, old and middle-aged men, if all 
had good trades. 
. Skilled workmen come from across the ocean and 



86 RIGHT LIVING 

find places, simply because they have the skill to do. 

Too many seek to live by their wits, i. e., by their 
brains, alone. Advertise for a bookkeeper. Appli- 
cants swarm and some are willing to advance money to 
secure the situation. The wonder is where so many 
come from. College graduates drive horse cars, handle 
freight on the docks, and are glad to do other similar 
service. 

What is the matter? 

Reverses of fortune and no trade, solves the riddle. 

How about office boys? 

There is always danger in becoming an office boy, 
unless a bargain is made that he shall learn the bus- 
iness, or learn a useful trade. Without that, the office 
boy will be apt to find himself in young manhood, 
or, in middle life, with nothing to do, perhaps with a 
family on his hands, picking up a job here and there, 
at work to-day and out of work to-morrow. 

He who has a trade goes into active life, guarded in 
a large degree from the tempter. His trade is a shield 
against many vices. 

It is a broad-axe with which a man or woman may 
hew a passage through the world of business, undaunted 
and fearless. A trade is the handle of Independence 
and is always honorable. Without it, dangers press 
closely. 

He who has no trade is far more apt to fall into 
dishonesty, wrong ways erf living, criminal practices 
that lead to the jail and the prison. 

If the trade is neglected in youth, then learn it 
whenever you see the necessity for it. No one is ever 
too old to learn. 

John Hunter (English) had no education to speak 



VALUE OF A TRADE 87 

of until he was twenty years of age or more. He 
learned the trade of a carpenter and worked at it in 
Glasgow. Then he went to London, and his applica- 
tion to books enabled him to become a public lecturer 
and anatomical demonstrator. How did he do it? By 
virtue, first, of natural ability, and second, by intense 
and eager application. He collected twenty thousand 
anatomical specimens, more than ever has been col- 
lected before or since, by one man. He became a sur- 
geon to St. George's hospital in London, and deputy 
surgeon general to the army, lectured to students and 
taught a school of anatomy at his own house, and, 
also, wrote several books. Some one asked him at 
one time how he got through with so much work as 
he did. His reply was — "My rule is, deliberately to 
consider before I commence, whether the thing be 
practicable. If it be practicable, I can accomplish 
it if 1 give sufficient pains to it; and, having begun, 
I never stop till the thing is done. To this rule I 
owe all my success." 

It is always wise, if possible, to find out what one 
is best adapted for, the work one can do best, and can 
have the most earnest love for; and then, to put all 
the skill possible into the doing of the same. 

Nobody understood the value of a practical under- 
standing of some particular trade or branch of busi- 
ness, better than Stephen Girard, the great philan- 
thropist and unceasing worker for the benefit of hu- 
manity. The following anecdote illustrates his prin- 
ciples and ideas regarding the importance of a trade, 
as a means of support, and also, a protection against 
immoral tendencies. 

Girard had, among his many clerks, one of whom 



88 RIGHT LIVING 

he thought very highly, and he said that he intended 
to do well by Ben Lippincott, which was the name of 
the favorite. So when Ben got to be twenty-one, he 
expected to hear something from his employer as to 
his future prospects, and, perhaps, he thought, he 
would lend him a helping hand toward starting him 
in the world of business. 

But Mr. Girard carefully avoided the subject. At 
length Ben mustered courage and said: "I suppose I 
am free now, sir, and I thought I would say something 
to you as to my future course. What do you think 
I had better do?" 

"Yes, I know you are free," said the great million- 
aire, "and my advice is that you go and learn the coop- 
er's trade." 

The young man was astonished but, recovering him- 
self, he said that if Mr. Girard was in earnest, he 
would do so. 

"I am in earnest," said Girard. 

Ben immediately sought the best cooper in Spring 
Garden, became an apprentice, and in due time could 
make as good a barrel as the best. He announced to 
Mr. Girard that he had graduated and was ready for 
business. The old gentleman seemed pleased, and 
ordered three of the best barrels he could turn out. 
Ben did his best and wheeled them up to Mr. Gi- 
rard's counting-room. He examined them carefully, 
pronounced them good, and inquired the price. "One 
dollar," said Ben, "is as cheap as I can afford them." 
"Cheap enough. Make out your bill," said Girard. 
The bill was made out, and the great hearted man 
settled it with a cheek for twenty thousand dollars, 
which he accompanied with this little moral: "There, 



VALUE OF A TRADE 89 

take that, Ben, and invest it in the best possible 
manner. If you are unfortunate, and lose it, you have 
a good trade to fall back upon, which will afford you 
a good living. " 

Never be afraid of honest labor, to use the hands. 
With good health, a fair education, good morals and 
a good trade, a lad may make his way and be inde- 
pendent; so may a girl. And a trade is just as val- 
uable to a girl as to a boy. All should do their part 
of the world's work. To be an idler, a loafer, when 
voluntary, is to be an excrescence, a fungus, a false 
specimen. 

A willing idler cannot be a gentleman, cannot be a 
lady. 



XVIII. 

RECREATION, A NECESSITY. 

Painters, when they work on white goods, place before them colors 
mixed with blue and green to recreate their eyes, Drydex. 

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, is an 
old saw, often quoted. It not only makes him a dull 
boy, but a stupid and unattractive one. On the con- 
trary, all play and no work is quite as injurious and 
mischievous. But no one will question for a moment 
that recreation, change from work, is as essential to 
the development of mental, intellectual and moral 
powers, as food is to the physical body. 

A continuous strain in one direction means weak- 
ness in another. 

Relaxation from study relieves and rests the brain. 

Indulgence in muscular recreation strengthens the 
whole physical being, gives tone and elasticity to the 
mind and body, as nothing else can do. 

"Oh dear," said a mother, "my boy is so absorbed 
in athletic sports, ball-playing, fencing, tennis and 
the like — I am afraid it is not good for him." 

These games will not hurt him, careful mother. 

While his mind is occupied in honest games that bring 

into play all the muscles and the limbs, your boy is 

not contemplating anything wrong or immoral. This 

is not to declare that he who never indulges in plays 

and games of this character is thinking of immoral or 

unwise things. No. 

90 



RECREATION, A NECESSITY 91 

But, by all means should the tendency to seek rec- 
reation in out-of-door sports be encouraged, in girls 
as well as boys. The pure air taken into the lungs 
wards off disease and gives health and tone to the 
system. 

It is said that the Germans have no athletic games 
in Germany, which, we think is a great mistake. 
However, no one has any business to make a regular 
work of recreation, putting all the energ3 r he has in 
it, and devoting all his time to that end. 

Some get too much physical exercise. Others not 
enough. If an arrangement could be made in all fam- 
ilies whereby a boy should saw and split the wood 
that is used, take charge of the lawn mower in sum- 
mer and the furnace in winter, the girl to do the 
sweeping in the house, wash the dishes or some cer- 
tain portion of the housework, it would be the best 
thing in the world for each. After the task is done, 
then should come the play hour. The daughter of 
wealthy parents became ill. The sensible old physi- 
cian when called to attend her, said — "What ails her? 
— Nothing to do! — that's what ails her. Buy her a 
broom! Buy her a broom!" The broom was bought 
and used — and the girl was soon well. 

Play! Play! Play! It is to be thoroughly be- 
lieved in. 

There are few more beautiful sights than the schol- 
ars of a school at recess, running, jumping, leaping, 
laughing, having a merry time, all by themselves. 

Coming from the play ground, warm, rosy, perspir- 
ing, eyes flashing, lips laughing, blood evenly distrib- 
uted, do you not see how, and with what fresh vigor 
the studies can be attacked and victory won over all 
lessons? 



92 RIGHT LIVING 

Recreation is more valuable than diamonds, but 
recreations that incur great expense, are not always 
the best. 

Care and discrimination should be exercised and 
scholars should remember that parents and teachers, 
being older, and wiser from experience, are apt to 
know, in regard to recreation and amusement, that 
which is better, as well as that which might be con- 
sidered doubtful. 

That recreation or amusement, in which some must 
refrain from taking part, owing to poverty, had better 
be put aside. 

There is always great temptation to one who may 
have little spending money, to beg or borrow, and, 
sometimes, to steal money, to keep up with companions 
who have a more liberal allowance. It calls for spec- 
ial bravery with some natures to resist these inclina- 
tions, but it is better in every case, to say — "No, I 
would like to indulge in these things but really, lam 
not able — I cannot possibly afford it. " 

No one who can afford it will look down upon an- 
other for being unable to join in any sport, on account 
of lack of means. 

It pays to be true, to be manly, womanly, honest. 

The approval of conscience is better than gold. 

One thing should be ever kept in view. It is this: 
While playing, and at all times, do not forget to be 
gentle and kind, especially to the weak, disabled and 
unfortunate. Do not, in order to exhibit your own 
prowess or muscle, skill with ball or bat, strike so as 
to hurt anyone, or endanger life and limb. 

Do not be a pugilist because you have strength 

Remember that while "it is glorious to have a giant's 
strength it is tyrannous to use it like a giant." 



RECREATION, A NECESSITY 93 

It may show physical strength to beat and batter a 
comrade, but, it also testifies to moral weakness to do 
it. 

Children, and young people, like society. They 
ought never to be isolated. It is very sad to see a 
boy or girl trying to play alone. To bring up a child 
away from playmates tends to selfishness, conceit, 
pride, and sometimes immorality. 

It is told of a little girl who had no brothers or sis- 
ters, that she continually craved companionship. She 
had everything her heart desired except a playmate. "I 
want somebody to play with," said she, "I don't care 
if it is the raggedest and worst child in the world!" 

After awhile she began absenting herself from her 
home. Her mother resolved to watch her movements. 
Following the well-worn foot-path one day, the as- 
tonished mother came upon her little daughter seated 
upon a log in the wide meadow, near a brook. With 
great gravity she was earnestly engaged in the busi- 
ness of playing school — school-mistress. And her 
scholars! — were seven or eight great fat toads! She 
had dressed these curious playmates in little jackets 
of pink calico, with white aprons tied around them 
which so secured their .limbs that they could not jump. 
The mother laughed aloud, and the little girl looked 
up and began to cr3 r . She was soon reassured and told 
the story of her school. 

The toads were perfectly tame, and seemed con- 
tented in the company of their little school mistress; 
and, when the school was over, their clothes were 
taken and placed in a box kept for that purpose, to 
be brought out again at the beginning of the next ses- 
sion. 



94 RIGHT LIVING 

What pathos in the fact that the child should be 
reduced to selecting toads for playmates! Albeit they 
were most interesting little playfellows, and could not 
harm her. 

Nature has a whole museum of curiosities. Her 
collections are varied, interesting and attractive. She 
offers the most solid enjoyment to those who will 
come to her for study or recreation. 



XIX. 

GAMES OF CHANCE. 

The trail of the serpent is over them all. Moore. 

By the word gambling or the term, games of chance, 
is meant the effort put forth to acquire means with- 
out giving an exact equivalent for the same. There 
are many devices for obtaining money under false pre- 
tenses, as lotteries, faro banks, pooling, playing cards, 
etc. 

One man pays a small sum into a lottery scheme. 
He chances to draw a prize; at the same time thou- 
sands of others pay the same sum as he did, but draw 
onl) r blanks. The successful drawer, elated by his 
success, invests more money in the same scheme 
more and still more, but draws nothing afterward. 
Even those who pay money to buy tickets in lotteries 
but to lose it, will still persist in buying more and 
more tickets, and losing more and more money, so 
subtle is the fascination attendant upon lotteries. 

Many thousands have been ruined by these practices, 
where one has been made better off. Some, having 
lost all they had in pursuing these fatal charms, have 
ended a miserable life in suicide. One, who used all 
the means he could get hold of in this way, finally 
gave up his business, pledged house and home and 
lost them, and, as a last resort, took the bank-book 
of his only little child — a matter of ten dollars, and 
95 



96 * RIGHT LIVING 

put that on the gaming-table, and saw that go, also. 

Robbed his only child who was but five years of 
age! 

Does not this show how the moral faculties may be 
blunted by indulgence in games of chance? how the 
moral sense of justice may be dulled and deadened? 

Gambling undoubtedly begins, not in the simple 
playing of games for amusement, but in playing for 
bits of money or its equivalent. This is the first step 
which leads on and on, by many bewitching ways, to 
final ruin and destruction, unless the habit is aban- 
doned at once. 

Many a clerk in a store, of fair promise, has lost 
his place by the bad habit of gambling, or betting at 
races. His employer knows that such habits are first 
steps to dishonesty, for, once having lost his own 
money, he will not be apt to hesitate long, before ven- 
turing to take from the firm, without, leave, that 
which will further his unworthy conduct. 

Games played for amusement are exciting enough, 
and even these, when carried to excess, that is, in- 
dulged in until late hours, as are the fashionable whist 
parties, are harmful. 

Any one can understand without telling, that in 
playing games for money, engaging in lotteries of 
any description, greed and covetousness are excited, 
and this excitement, and unnatural stimulus, is followed 
by nervous exhaustion; hence, arises a passion for 
strong drink, in order, as is falsely thought, to give 
strength to the overwrought nerves, which can never 
be done by drink. 

The mind cannot be kept in a calm, equable frame 
if constantly excited by hope and fear. 



GAMES OF CHANCE 97 

The results of the vice of gambling are severe and 
sorrowful. 

Because you will be better morally, feel better and 
happier, you will turn away from the first and every 
invitation to indulge in a game of chance, played for 
money, or, a prize of any kind. 

Lotteries you will shun as you would any evil, whose 
way points to degradation and dismay. 

Admiral Farragut and family were once spending 
the summer at Long Branch, and, while sitting on the 
piazza of the hotel, he said: "Would you like to know 
how I was enabled to serve my country?" "Yes," was 
the reply, "I would surely." 

"It was," said he, "all owing to a resolution I formed 
when I was but ten years of age. My father was sent 
to New Orleans with the little navy he had, to look 
after the treason of Burr. I went with him as cabin 
boy. I had some qualities that I thought made a 
man of me. I could swear like a pirate ; could drink 
a stiff glass of grog as if I had doubled Cape Horn, 
and could smoke like a locomotive. I was, even then, 
great at cards, and was fond of gambling in every 
shape. After dinner one day, my father turned every 
body out of the cabin, locked the door and said to 
me, 'David, what do you mean to be?' 

"'I mean to follow the sea, of course. ' 

'"Follow the sea!' said my father. 'Yes, quite like- 
ly, and be a poor, miserable, drunken sailor before the 
mast, kicked and cuffed about the world, and die at 
last, in some fever hospital in a foreign clime.' 

"'No,' I said. 'Oh no, I'll tread the quarter-deck 
and command as you do.' 

'No, David, no you won't. No boy ever trod the 



9S RIGHT LIVING 

quarter-deck with such principles as you have and such 
habits as you exhibit. You'll have to change your 
whole course of life if you ever become a man in its 
true sense.' 

"My father left me and went on deck. I was stunned 
by the rebuke, and overwhelmed with mortification. 
A poor, miserable, drunken, sailor before the mast, 
kicked and cuffed about the world and dying in some 
fever hospital! That's my fate, is it! I'll change my 
life and change it at once. I will never utter another 
oath, never drink another drop of intoxicating liquor, 
never gamble again.' 

"And I have kept these vows to this hour.'" 

Beware of the first step in games of chance, for it 
leads downward. If you win you get something that 
does not belong to you. If you lose, your evil pas- 
sions are aroused. The "respectable" ways of gam- 
bling, as speculation on margins, the making of "corn- 
ers" in wheat, corn, cloth, etc., are just as bad, or 
worse, than betting on card-playing, because handled 
by men who move in an upper grade of society. 

As a citizen of this world you have no right to be 
dishonest, or to try to get the better of any other cit- 
izen. 

Honesty and uprightness should be yours in all the 
dealings of life. 



XX. 

TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD. 

For he that feeds men serveth few; 

He serves all who dares be free. Emerson. 

I will look straight out — See things — not try to evade them — Fact 
shall be fact for me, and the truth, the truth forever. 

A. H, Clough. 

No character is worthy of respect that does not pos- 
sess truth as one of its principal component parts. 
The truth calls for respect always. It may be abhor- 
rent to some who have it not, especially if clashing 
with preconceived opinions. It is a lofty mind that 
dares be true to honest convictions in face of opposi- 
tion, holding firmly to opinions through persecutions, 
obloquy and social ostracism. 

In the past, people have suffered much for truth's 
sake— loss of friends, contumely, gross abuse and 
withdrawal of patronage. They have been tortured 
in every conceivable way, imprisoned, and murdered, 
even, for the sake of keeping the precious jewel of 
truth; but through the scorching heat and seething 
flame of the fagot, through most intense pain, and an- 
guish unutterable, they have kept steadfast to this 
gem of all gems. 

Haply, we live in a better time, when truths may be 
uttered with less cruel consequences. 

Truthfulness is one of the most beautiful blossoms 
99 
LofO. 



ioo RIGHT LIVING 

of the moral law, yet is more frequently abused, 
trampled upon, slighted, than any other flower. 

There is a difference and a distinction between a 
deliberate falsehood and an untruth. To speak falsely, 
with the express purpose and intent to deceive, is a 
lie. 

But, one may speak untruthfully, not intending to 
speak falsely — not meaning to tell a lie. He asserts 
that which is contrary to the truth, i. e., not corres- 
ponding to fact, from lack of correct information, or 
from forgetfulness of the exact facts. 

A perverter of facts, not wilfully so, cannot be 
called a liar. For example, a lady said, "That an- 
cient house on — street was once the alms-house." 
This was an incorrect statement, but the lady had been 
so informed, and believed the information, She was, 
then, simply mistaken, and not a falsifier. But if one 
should say — "That old house on — street was burned 
to the ground last night," knowing the statement to 
be untrue, he would be a liar. 

Some think there is little harm in equivocation, in 
telling what is termed, "white lies." Tricks of trade, 
matters of business, as a storekeeper, tells his cus- 
tomers his goods are perfect when he knows them to 
be imperfect — that they cost him the same price he 
asks for them — that he is not making one red cent, 
etc., are all falsehoods, but are passed lightly over 
as harmless. So in the home, many untruthful words 
are spoken thoughtlessly but the}' make an impres- 
sion. "I will whip you if you do that again!" How 
often is that said to the child — a useless threat. The 
thing is done again — no whipping follows. And in 
this way many a child takes its first lesson in untruth- 
fulness at the knee of its parent. 



TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD 101 

It is often difficult to quote correctly from the lips 
of others. Let ten persons repeat a story, or, the re- 
cital of some transaction that another has told. Note 
the variations in the reports. 

Not all will get even the same idea, correctly. 

In regard to evidence in court, great care should be 
taken in giving such evidence that it should be the 
exact truth. 

A little girl once being put upon the witness stand 
was asked by the opposing counsel if any one had 
talked with her before coming into court. "Did not 
Mr. So-and-so, (naming a certain lawyer,) tell you 
something particular?" 

"Oh yes," said the little one. 

"Ah," said the lawyer eagerly, "what did he say? 
What did he say?" 

"He told me to tell the truth!" was the reply. 

When it is remembered that a person's reputation 
may be blighted, or brightened forever, by our word, 
we will be careful as to that which we say. Truth 
carries great weight. It is not wise to say words that 
are untrue, even in jest. Why? 

Because one will hardly know when you are in earn- 
est if accustomed to jest often. 

It is better on all occasions to be perfectly truthful. 
Thus, a character for truthfulness will be established, 
the moral nature will be strengthened, and an exam- 
ple displayed, worthy to be imitated by all. 

Are there not occasions when the truth should be 
withheld? Possibly, when the world, not knowing all 
the facts, might condemn unjustly, so, when one may 
be spared great pain or mortification by withholding 
certain facts; as in case of runaway slaves, before 



102 RIGHT LIVING 

slavery was abolished, the truth was withheld to aid 
human beings to escape from the tyranny of bondage; 
but, on general principles, the truth is always best. 

Truth that would benefit all should never be kept 
back. It belongs to the world. 

You should be truthful because it is right so to be, 
because thus, you feel better in your own mind, you 
thereby establish a good, sound, and noble character 
and thus show that you are worthy of respect, and that 
you respect yourself. 

In smuggling times in England and Scotland, the 
clergyman was often consulted as to the best means of 
avoiding detection by the officers of the excise. "What 
am I to do, sir, if the gauger comes?" said a smuggler 
to the minister; "for ilka drap is i the hoose!" 

"Just tell the truth," advised the minister, "and 
leave the rest to Providence." The smuggler con- 
sented very reluctantly, "for," said he, "if the gauger 
tak's the drink, I'm a ruined man." In a few days, 
as the smuggler had anticipated, an exciseman en- 
tered his dwelling, and demanded where he had con- 
cealed his merchandise. 

"Well, I'll just tell the plain truth," said the 
smuggler; "every drap is in a big hole under the 
bed." "You rascal!" cried the Exciseman, "if it had 
been there you would not be so ready to avow it." 

So the officer searched the entire premises with the 
exception of the spot indicated, and then left, grum- 
bling that he had not discovered anything. 

Next day the smuggler waited on his minister to ex- 
press his gratitude for his counsel, 

"I tauld the truth, sir," said he, "just as you re- 
quired, an' the gauger wadna believe me. Had I done 



TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD 103 

anything else na' dobt a'.had been deteckit, I shall 
noo, sir, ay tell the truth, even to the gauger, for it 
is, as you said, best for a body i' the end." 



XXI. 

WHAT IS AN OATH? OR THE WORTH OF A PROMISE? 

And be these juggling fiends no more believed, 

That palter with us in a double sense: 

That keep the word of promise to our ear, 

And break it to our hope. Shakespeare. 

In courts of law, life, liberty, character, or veracity, 
and, also titles to property, are often brought in ques- 
tion. 

In fact, it is on account of these things that courts, 
judges, juries and all officers of the law, as such, exist. 
Were all men honest, upright, truthful and honorable 
in their dealings with one another, as they should be, 
there would be no necessity for the existence of tri- 
bunals of law. There would be no reason for a body 
of men to assemble for the purpose of collecting tes- 
timony in regard to the honesty, or dishonesty, of a 
person, or the adjudgment of the guilt or innocence 
of any one. 

Human laws exist because people are dishonest and 
deficient in the correct understanding of the true 
moral nature — because they disregard its commands. 

Hence we have courts of justice, witnesses are 
brought to testify as to the exact truth, and oaths are 
taken to enforce the sacredness and solemnity of such 
evidence. 

The legal form of the oath is in this wise : "You 
solemnly swear that the evidence you shall give in 
104 



WHAT IS AN OATH? 105 

this case, shall be the truth, the whole truth and noth- 
ing but the truth, so help you God." 

This oath is administered by the clerk of the court. 

In some states of the Union, the witness holds up 
his right hand and replies — "I do" to the above form. 
In other cases the witness takes the oath by laying 
his hand upon the Bible and the form of the oath is 
in this wise: "You do solemnly swear upon the Holy 
Evangels, that the evidence you shall give in this case 
shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but 
the truth, so help you God" — and the witness then 
kisses the Book, which act is supposed to show bis 
intention to tell the truth. Then there is the form 
called affirmation, used by Quakers, or Friends, and 
Agnostics, when permitted to testify in court. The 
form is thus: "You do solemnly, sincerely, and truly 
affirm that the evidence you shall give in this case 
shall be the truth to the best of your knowledge and 
belief, and this you affirm." The witness simply says 
"I do." 

After taking these oaths, witnesses have been known 
to go upon the stand and violate every word of the 
oath they have taken, telling the most out and out 
falsehoods. 

In regard to the practice of kissing the book as 
binding the oath, some good people have remonstrated 
against it as injudicious as to health. Some lips may 
be very impure with tobacco or alcohol, to say noth- 
ing of foul diseases and offensive sores that in this 
way might be communicated to healthy persons. 

In spite of the prescribed oath, witnesses and juries 
have been bribed to speak falsely. This is a breach 
of both the moral and civil law, and is termed perjury. 
This offense is subject to severe punishment. 



106 RIGHT LIVING 

The perjurer is justly regarded as an enemy to the 
good of the community and the State, to be shunned 
by everybody. 

Mistakes are liable to happen in giving evidence, 
but to tell the truth according to the best knowledge 
and belief is all that can be required. 

If all men were moral, and would do as they would 
desire to be done by, all would live in peace, harmony 
and safety. Such is not the case; hence, in the trans- 
actions of business, any one is liable to be called into 
court as a witness, who does observe and use his eyes 
and ears. But in no case is one called upon to crim- 
inate himself in the giving of testimony. But, he 
may be compelled to testify as to the conduct of others, 
on penalty of imprisonment if he does not tell that 
which he knows. 

Though often sad and humiliating to one's pride, 
it is right to be truthful, and careful that we adhere 
to truth, under all circumstances of law, both moral 
and civil. 

All should endeavor to bring to justice the perpe- 
trators of crime, in order to keep the peace of com 
munities. For, if one injury is concealed, or passed 
over, it may be followed by other injuries of the 
same character. Let an incendiary escape, and no 
property would be safe. 

No one wants to be an informer, but, when the good 
of the whole is involved, the true man will not hesi- 
tate to give facts in his possession that may lead to 
detection of guilty parties. The evidence of witnesses 
is valuable and rated, according to the age, experi- 
ence and character of the witness. A fair, calm, dis- 
passionate person of good moral character, will carry 



WHAT IS AN OATH? 107 

great weight in his evidence, and that which he may 
say, is, in itself, convincing proof. Therefore, it is 
plain to see why we should desire to be known as 
persons of good moral character, the words of the 
mouth being verified by the entire life and conduct, 
whether they be good or bad, true or false. 

The ancient Athenians had great respect for the 
oath. 

The poet Euripides introduced in one of his plays, 
one, who, on being reminded of the oath he had taken, 
replied, "I swore with my mouth, but not with my 
heart." This sentiment met with great disfavor from 
the righteous audience when the play was rendered. 
Socrates, who was present in the theatre at the time, 
left in great indignation, and, the author of the play 
was brought to trial, as one who had suggested the 
evasion of the oath, that was cherished as the most 
holy and indissoluble bond of human society. 

Are we under obligation to speak truly without the 
form of an oath? Yes, we should regard our simple 
word as enough, without any more binding force. 

The conscientious man requires no oath, or ceremony, 
to induce him to speak truly. 

He who cannot tell the truth without a stereotyped 
form, would hardly be truthful under any circumstances. 

An oath never made man honest or truthful. But, 
as said before, falsehoods under oath have been made 
to appear truthful and credible in the sight of man, 
as judge and jury know. 

The word of one who requires the clincher of an 
oath is of comparatively little value. 

The word of the truly moral man is invincible, and 
the value of the teaching of morals, is, in raising the 



108 RIGHT LIVING 

standard of manhood so high, that the word of the 
mouth cannot be impeached, either with, or without, 
an oath. 

Our word should be honest, truthful and correct, for 
the sake of the truth, itself, not because of the oath 
taken. 

The obligation should be in the individual to tell 
the truth. If not there, no outward form can put it 
there. 

In India and China, in judicial proceedings, there 
is no prescribed form of oath. Witnesses are warned 
that if they bear false testimony they are liable to 
severe punishment. In ancient Rome, the form of oath, 
or affirmation, was this: "I promise, or, 1 speak the 
truth from the thoughts of my heart." He who bore 
false witness must be thrown from the Tarpeian 
rock. To refuse to give evidence, rendered a person 
infamous for life, and such were not allowed to make 
a will. 

A promise should be considered as binding and sa- 
cred as an oath. 

We should be careful how we make a promise, but, 
having made it, we should be more careful not to 
break it. There are, however, conditions where the 
non-fulfillment of a promise is justifiable, as, when 
it is discovered that the keeping of the same would 
result in injury to ourselves or others. 

A bad promise is better broken than kept, but'care 
should be exercised so that a bad promise, or, one that 
will not agree with duty, may never be made, then, 
the necessity will never arise of breaking it. The 
moral men and moral women make society better. 

The more truthful and honest people there are, the 



WHAT JS AN OATH? 109 

better it is for the community, the State, the nation, 
the world ; the fewer crimes, courts and jails there will 
be. Hence, every one should try to live so, for his 
own peace of mind and the peace of that society of 
which he is a member, that it may be truly said of 
him "His word is as good as his bond." 



XXII. 

FRAUD A CRIME. 

The rogue cozened not me, but his conscience. Latimer. 

There are men in convicts' cells to-day who re- 
ceived their first impulse to wrong-doing in school. 
How? By copying the work of others, and passing 
it for their own. 

"The lesson was hard," or, "I had not time to do 
the examples," or, "I played too long," are the ex- 
cuses; and then, copies were made from the papers of 
a more industrious scholar, borrowed, or taken with- 
out leave. In either case it was a species of theft. 
Possibly yo^have done the same. You took the work 
of another; you passed it for your own. You cheated 
the teacher into the belief that it was your own. 
Above all, although you did not know it, you cheated 
yourself, and Festus says, 

"Of all frauds, to cheat one's self is the worst. All 
sin is easy after that." 

You made yourself believe, or you tried to, that it 
was all right, and that you had done nothing out of 
the way. Now, let me tell you this: that one who 
will deliberately, and continuously, cheat in his les- 
sons at school, will be pretty apt to go on cheating all 
through life. But, in strict accordance with an in- 
evitable law of nature, he will, at last, be discovered 
in his dishonesty. He may flourish for a time, but, 
soon or late, his transgressions will come to light. 
110 



FRAUD A CRIME in 

The Chinese have very strict ideas of honesty. In 
examinations for college, the candidates are always 
searched for concealed manuscripts, or anything de- 
signed to help, in answering questions. Sometimes, 
it happens that a thin book, printed on small type 
from copper plates is slipped by the candidate, into a 
hole in the bottom of the shoe. But when one is dis- 
covered in this conduct, he is set aside for life, as un- 
worthy of respect, and receives the scorn and contempt 
of all good persons. 

There seems to be innate in some the desire to get 
something for nothing, to receive good without ren- 
dering an equivalent, to slyly, and, in an underhanded 
way, get, or gain that for which they have no inten- 
tion of paying. 

Yet, if they would take a survey of the whole mat- 
ter, it would easily be seen that anything procured in 
such a manner is not conducive to righteousness or 
happiness. The scholar who copies all the way, the 
work of others, can never be morally strong, nor does 
that which he has gained in this way ever do him real 
service. It is by personal application, digging and 
delving, each for himself, by hard labor, that we reap 
benefit, in school and out. 

Cheating, fraud, in play, in business everywhere, is 
immoral, and evil in its results, as well as in its acts, 
and ends finally, in humiliation, pain and misery. 

A well-known man in a populous city, was in the 
habit of entering a store frequently, where cigars were 
kept for sale. Being a smoker, he would help himself 
to three or four cigars, pay for one and go out. The 
dealer observed this conduct, and when it had been 
going on for some six months or more, he sent the 



ii2 RIGHT LIVING 

gentleman a polite note, stating the facts, and saying 
that, unless the bad habit was stopped the public 
would hear from it. The next day the gentleman sent 
the dealer his check for a hundred dollars, and im- 
plored him to say nothing. 

Now, this man was well able to pay for all that he 
wanted, of cigars, or anything else, but he was im- 
. bued with the idea of getting without paying — cheat- 
ing. 

No one can be happy in pursuing such a course. 
Why? Because it is wrong. Conscience tells us it 
is. 

We have no right to defraud any one. 

Our duty to society, to man, to ourselves, tells us, 
as though written in letters of fire, to be honest, not 
to practice fraud or injustice, if we would be happy 
ourselves, and render others happy, also. 

One who was, as a school-boy, in the habit of copy- 
ing his lessons, grew up and became known as smart. 
He became a politician, and finally got to be deputy 
postmaster. A farmer, desirous of sending some 
mpney away, entrusted the same to a lawyer, who 
placed it in a letter, addressed it, and handed it to 
the deputy postmaster for mailing. A few weeks 
later, the farmer came in and said the money had not 
been received by the party to whom it was to be sent. 
The lawyer went directly to the deputy postmaster and 
said to him plainly : "You have stolen the money that 
was in the letter I placed in your hands." The man 
denied it. And there was no proof that could be 
brought to gainsay his word. Time went on. Eight 
years afterward this same man was tax collector of 
the town. The lawyer went to pay his tax. By chance 



FRAUD A CRIME 



113 



he discovered upon the books of the assessors an ap- 
pearance of another kind of ink. He paid his tax, 
went directly to the office of the assessors, and de- 
manded an examination of their books, stating his 
suspicions that all was not right. Sure enough, there 
was fraud, figures altered here and there, all over the 
books. 

So, the lawyer quietly took the names of those who 
were overcharged on the tax books, sent for the col- 
lector, and, when he came, locked the door and told 
him just what he had been doing. 

The charges could not be denied. The lawyer de- 
manded the money, having received power to act. The 
man said he had no money to pay back the amounts 
stolen. "Get it," said the lawyer. He managed to 
procure the money, and made instant preparations to 
leave town. But, before he started, he went every- 
where that he could be trusted, and ran up large bills, 
well knowing he never intended to pay them, seem- 
ingly unable to control the desire to cheat. 

In the fruit season, some boys, and girls too, make a 
practice of stealthily visiting orchards and gardens, not 
their own, and helping themselves to fruit without per- 
mission, sometimes injuring young trees by cutting and 
breaking limbs with sticks and stones. 

It seems not to be realized that this is theft, just as 
much as though you entered a neighbor's house and 
took therefrom the dinner prepared for his family or 
the adornments of his parlor. 

Would you think it right if some one should go slyly 
to your room, rifle your pockets, and carry away your 
property? Surely not. Have you, then, any more right 
to take even that of the slightest value without leave ? 



ii4 RIGHT LIVING. 

Passing over an offence of this sort lightly, or follow- 
ing the same by another of like import, may lead, in 
the end, to very grave results. 

A man employed in a bank fell into evil ways, robbed 
the bank, was detected, and sent to prison. He said he 
began as a boy to steal pears, apples, plums, peaches, 
and other kinds of fruit, just for fun. This was the be- 
ginning, which led, step by step, to the prisoner's cell. 

You would not be happy walking in such a path, 
would you? Then do not take the first step therein. 

It is easy enough to see that you will be far happier 
to walk in honest ways, in ways that win your own 
approval and the approval of your parents and friends. 

Would you be trusted, honored, and happy? Then 
shun the way of the evil-doer. The thing you would 
not wish done to yourself, that be sure you never do. 

Because trouble, misery, sorrow and shame, follow 
in the wake of the cheat and the fraud, and, because 
peace, a quiet frame of mind, pleasure and happiness 
attend the one who walks uprightly and deals honora- 
bly, we should be true and just in all our dealings. 

You will some day be required, by the society in 
which you live, to become a factor in the business re- 
lations of life. You will perhaps be elected to office, 
serve on juries, negotiate loans, or, have charge of the 
affairs of others in some way. The community requires 
you to be conscientious, moral and strictly honest. 

Be sure you meet its requirements. Otherwise shame 
and sorrow will be your portion. 

This you may know from observing the course of 
those who have been false to that committed to their 
care. They are found in every town. Are they re- 
spected and happy-? 



XXIII. 

THE POISON OF SLANDER. 

Slander, that word of poison, ever finds 

An easy entrance to ignoble minds. Hervey. 

Slander! 
Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue 
Out-venoms all the worms of Nile, whose breath 
Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie 
All corners of the world. Shakespeare. 

To bear false witness in a court of law, is, as has 
been denned, perjury, and is a punishable crime; but, 
how many in society, go about bearing false witness 
daily to the defamation and ruin of reputation and 
prospects in life ! 

Slander is a cruel injury done to humanity and one 
hard to be forgiven. 

We should be careful indeed of the words we say, 
the tales we tell, for words once uttered can never be 
recalled. 

A single word may change the meaning of a whole 
sentence and cause such trouble as can never be set- 
tled, make stains that cannot be obliterated. 

"They say" is the author of many vile falsehoods, 
and ruins the influence that many a person might 
otherwise exert for good. Should we hear an injurious 
report of one whom we have no reason to suspect, or, 
if we have, there is no occasion to repeat the same, 
for every story gathers as it goes. 
115 



1 16 RIGHT LIVING 

Did you ever pause and think what a mean, con- 
temptible thing it is to speak evil of any one? You 
never, perhaps, thought how such speaking hurts. 
But the story may not reach that person's ears? It is 
just as bad, for those who have heard it, look upon 
the individual with repulsion, believing the tale to be 
true. 

It is well before originating a story, or repeating 
one to the injury of another, to ask, Would I like 
such reports to be circulated about myself? No. 

Then, whatsoever you would dislike to have said 
about yourself, that, be sure you never say. 

If you can say no good of one, be silent. 

Teach yourself to think before you speak. Learn 
to say, "I do not know." 

Remember that a good name is better than riches. 

'Who steals my purse steals trash; 
Bat he that filches from me my good name 
Robs me of that which not enriches him, 
And makes me poor indeed." 
Gossip is the own cousin of Slander. 
In every place there is a great deal of unpardonable 
tittle-tattle going on, not a tenth part, and often not 
a thousandth part, being true. 

Much is said carelessly, innocently. There is a de- 
sire to communicate a bit of news, to make talk, and 
it is to the shame of those who make it, that there 
can be found nothing better to say than to dissect, 
or defame a neighbor's character. 

It is disgraceful that a class cf people can, appar- 
ently, find no other topics to discuss than the weath- 
er, the cooks and the neighbors. 

A worthy person will not permit himself, or her- 
self, to do this persistently. 



THE POISON OF SLANDER 117 

Some one said long ago, that the tale-bearer and the 
tale hearer ought to be hung up, back to back, one by 
the tongue and the other by the ear. 

There are two sides to every story, and if you know 
but one side, you are only half informed. Listen to 
the other side before giving an opinion, if the story 
be important, if not, let it go. It is better to not 
hear it at all. 

The slanderous tongue is a venomous one. It poi- 
sons and kills. 

The slayer of a good name should not be tolerated 
in society. 

Slander has slain its thousands. It has made wounds 
that could never heal. Therefore, as you value your 
own good name be careful how you speak, lest you 
sully, by a breath, the good name of another. 

Neither insinuate by look or tone, any ill toward 
any human being. 

We all belong to the human brotherhood — one great 
family. 

Let us cherish and protect the good name and char- 
acter, as we would like our own cherished and pro- 
tected. Be neither a backbiter nor a flatterer. 

Several years ago a respectable young business man 
was going to New York to buy stock. The cashier of 
a bank entrusted him with a package of bills to be 
handed to a bank officer in that city. He delivered 
the package promptly and the cashier, to whom he 
handed it, looked the bills over hastily, put them in a 
drawer, said" All right," and went on with his writ- 
ing. 

A month later, the one who had entrusted him with 
the package came to his place of business, and said 



n8 RIGHT LIVING 

one of the bills of the parcel was missing. The young 
man said he had delivered the package as stated 
above. But there were the facts. Two prominent bus- 
iness men in responsible positions, on one side, and 
the unsupported testimony of a young druggist on 
the other. The odds were too unequal, and the young 
man had to go to the wall. The community looked 
coldly on him, and he did not prosper in business. 

Years passed. The story was handed down, and was 
always held against him. Twenty years later when- 
ever his name was mentioned, there was a falling of 
the countenance that meant "No confidence." The 
story always gathered weight as it went, and he felt 
the cloud that hung perpetually over him would fi- 
nally be the means of his death. He grew to be old 
but never regained the high social and business posi- 
tion he had lost. He died oppressed with grief and 
pain, at the stain upon his name that he knew he did 
not deserve. One day the old desk in the office at New 
York was taken to a shop to be repaired. On remov- 
ing the drawer, the missing bank-bill was found lodged 
behind it! 

It was said in the Buffalo Courier that the workers 
of the world do not gossip, but the idle man and 
the idle woman, the people who do no more toil- 
ing than they are obliged to, whose brains are in 
a state of mental vacuity, are the pests of every com- 
munity. 

That was proof of a fine character, Mrs. X's remark 
to Mrs. Z when the latter attempted to tell Mrs. X 
something of a new resident's previous history. Mrs. 
X drew her tall form up into the air, as she said to 
this would-be betrayer : "If Mrs. Blank has any blot 



THE POISON OF SLANDER 119 

on her past I prefer to know it from her. Until then 
I am quite willing to take her for what she seems. " 

The feminine Judas slunk away, still smiling, but 
she lost no time in saying: "Mrs. X is getting very 
airy. I could tell some things about her." 

Could she have told anything, and what did she 
know? Nothing, absolutely. Yet her "ambiguous 
givings out" were worse than open enmity. Mrs. Z 
had a vague idea that Mrs. X, like most hot-headed, 
implusive people, had committed some youthful in- 
discretions which, published to the world, would make 
shipwreck of her reputation. In point of fact, Mrs. 
X's chief offense was in being cleverer than Mrs. 2. 
Like listeners, those who allow themselves to gossip 
carry their own punishment with them. 

Would you not be ashamed to be known as a slan- 
derer or a tattler. Then, guard well your tongue. 



XXIV. 

WHAT IS HYPOCRISY? 

Hypocrisy has become a fashionable vice and every fashionable 
vice passes for a virtue. Moliere. 

To be a hypocrite is the pretending to be that which 
one is not. Hypocrisy is dishonesty. It is to be 
untrue to the principles of right. 

Hypocrites say that which they do not believe, be- 
lieve that which they do not say. They think one 
thing and act another. 

Hypocrisy is but a different word for lying. It is 
deception. 

We have no business to deceive any person, not 
even ourselves. 

Why not? 

Are we not all made of the same dust, and pursuing 
the same end —happiness? 

Are we not all members of the same family? All 
brothers and sisters? And does not a wrong or an in- 
justice done to ourselves, or even to the least, among 
our associates, act and re-act to pain and misery and 
not happiness? 

We have no right to bring any influence to bear, 
that will cause pain instead of pleasure. Said one — 
"It is no matter if I deceive so long as it is not known. " 
It is known. You know it, and others, by means of a 
law inevitable, will find it out, soon or late. 
120 



WHA T IS HYPOCRISY? 1 2 1 

It does matter how your conduct is, whether known 
or unknown. 

Wrong is followed by its own punishment in all 
cases. 

You cannot escape it. 

Besides, once you are discovered to be a hypocrite, 
you will no longer be respected or trusted. 

As a rule, society does not fancy having its weak 
points touched. 

The one who alludes in plain language, to the shams 
and hypocrisies of society is called unpopular, a luna- 
tic, fanatic, and other similar epithets. But these 
titles are more honorable than that of fraud, or hypo- 
crite. 

Bernard, a very unscrupulous lawyer was once in 
conversation with Cromwell, detailing some subterfuge 
that he was using. "Yes," said Cromwell, "I under- 
stand that you have been \astly wary in your conduct; 
do not be too confident of this; subtlety may deceive 
you; integrity never will." 

There are a vast number of people industriously 
striving to keep the outward appearance pleasant and 
attractive, while within, the material is coarse, cor- 
rupt and repulsive. 

We should all endeavor to be as true and upright 
as possible, and to let others perceive just that which 
we are. 

Be steadfast to principle, and an approving con- 
science will always atone for any neglect that may come 
from the outside world. Then, fear not to be frank, 
candid, honest. 

Be true. 

Why? 



122 RIGHT LIVING 

The true individual is better for the home, for 
school, for society, for associates, for himself — better 
in all ways, in all stations, under all circumstances. 

Therefore, we should seek for real facts, think them, 
act them, live them. 

"What kind of house will we play?" asked one 
little girl of another. "Oh play calling," replied 
the other. "Mary here, she can be Mrs. Brown, 
and sit on the piazza and Julia and I will call on 
her and ask her how she is, how her husband is, and 
if the babies got over the measles — and tell her 
how nice she appears in her new wrapper and hope 
it won't hurt her much when she has that tooth 
filled. Then, we'll say good-b}^e, Mrs. Brown, come 
and see us sometime and bring the children; and, 
you're such a stranger, we don't see half enough of 
you. Then Julia and I will courtesy and walk off a 
piece, and I'll say to Julia 'Did you ever see such 
a horrid old fright as she looks in that wrapper?' And 
then Julia, she'll say: 'The idear of anybody having a 
false tooth filled!' And then I'll say: 'Yes, and what a 
homely lot of dirty little brats them of hern is.': Let's 
play it. What do you say?" 

There is no call for hypocrites. They are a despic- 
able set. Shun them. Be not one, yourself. 

Be sincere. 

Respect your word, act and thought, too much to 
be, in any sense, a deceiver. 



XXV. 

CONSCIENCE, OR MORAL SENSE, 

Talents, angel bright, 
If wanting worth, are shining instruments 
In false ambition's hands to finish faults 
Illustrious, and give infamy renown. Young. 

The sweetest cordial we receive at last, 

Is conscience of our virtuous actions past. Denham. 

We are governed by motives, the strongest motive, 
for the time being, determining the action. Behind 
the motive is a faculty that enables us to distinguish 
between right and wrong actions. This is usually 
called conscience, or moral sense. 

It is more active in some than in others. 

There are those in whom this beautiful faculty 
hardly stirs at all. Go into the prisons, the asylujns, 
the homes for the unfortunate. You will note that the 
foreheads of the inmates, in many cases, are very nar- 
row, small and decreasing in size, while the back 
brain, the seat of the lower, or animal faculties, is 
enormously large. The head is misshapen. There is 
a dull, staring, vacant look, or, an uncommonly bright 
and sharp vision. Heredity, or some prenatal cause, 
may produce these unbalanced heads. There may have 
been lack of proper training, or a failure in awaken- 
ing the conscience. Acquisitiveness may have been 
allowed full sway, until it became abnormal, and then 
123 



1 24 RIGHT LI VI NG 

led the person into wrong-doing that resulted in the 
felon's cell. Or, anger unrestrained, may have made 
one a slayer of his brother. 

A well-educated woman who had been in prison for 
a crime, when asked why she did such a thing, re- 
plied, "I do not know. I seemed to have very little 
conscience. When they (the officers) talked to me in 
the prison, their words made no impression. I did 
wrong according to law, and I knew it, but I did not 
seem to feel the enormity of the wrong." This person 
lacked moral sense, and, no one had ever taken pains 
to arouse it to action. 

Can the moral sense be educated, then? It can. 

Different nations have various ideas of conscience. 

In the epochs of the world's history, men have had 
peculiar ideas of right and wrong. There are yet some 
countries where it is regarded a most solemn duty to 
kill the aged and put them out of the way; the con- 
science of the relatives of these doomed ones, acqui- 
escing in the law, and honestly believing it to be 
right. To us it is shocking. 

Why? 

Because the moral sense of right and justice has 
been subject to education, or growth, and it tells us 
when enlightened, that such action is wrong. It in- 
flicts, pain and suffering upon another, and as life is 
sweet to us, so it is to the aged, and we are happier 
in conferring benefits upon them, instead of depriving 
them of life and its blessings. 

We learn by precept and experience, and, in every- 
thing we do; if we act from motives of conviction, 
we shall be pretty sure to be right. 

The standard of right must always differ, according 



CONSCIENCE, OR MORAL SENSE 125 

to facilities of education, how one has been brought 
up, etc. Once, honest people conscientiously believed 
slavery right, especially the enslavement of those 
whose skins were somewhat darker than their own. 

The Carthagenians, Persians and Phoenicians once 
thought it right to sacrifice their children by burning 
them alive. 

As people progressed in ideas they learned better 
things. 

The conscience has become enlightened by the de- 
velopment of thought, the exercise of reason and 
judgment. 

People have learned the right by noting the amount 
of happiness it brought, in contrast to the pain suffered 
by actions, that, in consequence were felt to be wrong. 

False and erroneous ideas are gradually outgrown. 
It has taken centuries to educate the moral sense up 
to its present high standard, and there is more to 
learn yet. 

That which is considered right in the present time 
would once have been thought wholly wrong, and been 
met with punishment. As now, we know very quickly 
when we perform a wrong action or a right one. 

When Isaac T. Hopper was a small boy he was 
sent some distance on an errand. Arriving just as the 
family were sitting down to supper, they invited him 
to partake with them, or at least, have a piece of pie. 
The long walk had whetted his appetite and Isaac was 
fond of pie, but, the shyness of childhood, perhaps, 
led him to say, "No, I thank you." 

When he had delivered his message, he was still 
looking longingly at the pie. 

His conscience disturbed him greatly for telling a 



126 RIGHT LIVING 

lie. But the family were Quakers, and they understood 
yea to mean yea, and nay, nay. They would have con- 
sidered it a mere worldly compliment to repeat the 
invitation; so they were silent. Isaac started for 
home, much repenting of his bashfulness and his con- 
science imploring him to return and confess his error. 
He walked nearly half the way home revolving the 
subject in his mind. Finally he turned about, walked 
straight back to the house and marched boldly into the 
supper-room, saying, — "I told a lie when I was here, 
I did want a piece of pie; but, I thought to be sure 
you would ask me again." This explicit avowal made 
them all smile and he was served with all the pie he 
wanted. 

We should never tempt one to do a mean action or 
a wrong thing; never urge one against his better na- 
ture or his conscience. 

We should remember, too, that the life we live may 
serve as an example, a guide for some other. How 
important then, that it be a bright and glorious light 
that any one may follow without sorrow or uneasi- 
ness. 

Is it not something grand and great to live for, to 
be the means of help to another toward a full and 
complete life? 



XXVI. 

SELFISHNESS THE MENACE OF SOCIETY. 

Vivre pour autrui. Auguste Comte. 

Selfishness is the bane of society. Unselfishness is 
the flower of social life. 

There should always be exercised a due regard for 
one's self, i. e., so far as properly caring for the health, 
the clothing, personal appearance, education, means 
of support; for, these things are necessary to the well- 
being and cannot be considered, morally, in a selfish 
light, as the word selfish is commonly understood. 
Rut, when self is made supreme, when it is placed 
first, last and foremost, without regard to the wishes, 
interests, or happiness of others — when it seeks grati- 
fication at the expense, injury or positive unhappiness 
and misery of those around us, then, it is selfishness. 

Then, it is abhorrent. 
-No one fancies the selfish individual. 

He is justly shunned. 

It has been said of the first Napoleon that he had 
"no sentiment of good or evil, only the sentiment of 
self." 

Is the selfish person the happy being? No. 

Is he the one that makes those near him happy? 

No. 

Greedy and grasping, always trying to get the best 
127 



128 RIGHT LIVING 

of a trade to the hurt of some one, he is the cause of 
much misery and trouble. 

Unselfishness does not put self first, but last. It 
has a tender, earnest thoughtfulness for others on all 
occasions; and pleasure follows in its wake, as the 
blossoms open under the cheering warmth of the sun. 

The motto of Auguste Comte was vivre pour autrui 
— live for others. This is unselfishness, and is the 
essence of true life. No sorrow is in its wake. 

Living to make others happy brings happiness to 
ourselves. 

The light and joy of blessing others, enfolds and 
cheers like the music of songs without words. 

How shall I be unselfish? you ask. 

By constantly doing little acts of kindness for the 
benefit of others, when the doing them puts you out 
of your common course, perhaps. There is a favor 
you can do for mother, father, sister, brother, teacher 
or friend. Do it at once. 

By doing gracefully the little acts of life, it be- 
comes easier to perform the larger duties that are 
constantly arising. Self-love and selfishness are differ- 
ent qualities. 

To love one's self so well as to keep from folly, to 
behave nobly, to win the approval of the conscience, 
is right and honorable. 

But selfishness seeks more than its own, puts itself 
first, and crowds others to the wall. It takes advant- 
age of the weakness of others, and wants more than 
equity and fair dealing. 

By the exercise of selfishness the good is taken, not 
in fact, so much out of another, as sought, but out of 
one's own self. 



SELFISHNESS A MENACE 129 

Selfishness always turns out, in the end, to be weak- 
ness — to be a blunder, and if followed, it tends to par- 
alyze the conscience. 

This is the age of human brotherhood. 

We are brothers and sisters, not to hurt each other, 
not to battle like beasts of prey, but to be kind and 
thoughtful, gentle, humane, unselfish. 

We are to study the right, and do it for its own 
sake. 

We are to be just for the sake ot justice. 

M L. N. in the Atlanta Constitution tells the fol- 
lowing in regard to two noble natures: 

"Unselfishness is an unfailing test of noble manhood. 
True chivalry always springs from this source. To 
show the esteem in which generosity has always been 
held, a little instance is found in the life of Sir Phil- 
ip Sidney. Before relating this little story, perhaps, 
it would be best to give a few of the leading traits 
for which this good man was so famous. He was one 
of the noblest men of his time. He was learned, be- 
ing a poet and a writer. On account of his chivalry 
and courtliness he was made a knight, and Elizabeth 
was fond of calling him the "Jewel of her dominions. " 
He was the nephew of the Earl of Leicester, who was 
sent over in 1556 to assist the Hollanders against 
Philip II. of Spain, and it was at the famous battle 
of Zutphin that the incident about to be related 
occurred. 

"Sir Philip Sydney had been fighting bravely all 
day when he received a wound in the thigh, which 
proved to be his death wound. While he was being 
borne away upon a litter, the profuse bleeding of his 
wound caused him great thirst, and he asked for water. 



130 RIGHT LIVING 

One of the soldiers handed him a cup, but just as he 
was about to put it to his lips, he noticed a common 
soldier, who had also been severely wounded, looking 
at the cup with such eager, hungry eyes that he gave 
it to him, saying, "Take it, thy necessities are greater 
than mine." What could be more touching^ beauti- 
fied than this one act of unselfishness which has made 
the name of Sir Philip Sidney immortal! This calls 
to mind another act of a similar nature, but under 
different circumstances and in a different sphere of 
life; clearly showing that it is not only among the • 
great that noble hearts are found, but among the lowly 
as well; and that as generous a heart may throb be- 
neath rags, as beneath a cover of silk and velvet. 

"Two little boys were sweeping the street, and one 
of them picked up a half eaten apple; he was so hun- 
gry that he took a huge bite immediately, and then 
offered it to his companion, a little gentleman, de- 
spite his tattered garments. The little fellow took a 
very modest bite, upon which the one who had found 
the apple said "Oh, bite bigger, Billy." To my mind 
it is hard to distinguish which was the nobler of the 
two natures, Sir Philip Sidney or the ragged street 
urchin. One was reared in affluence, amid the splen- 
dor of the English court, with the most cultured men 
of the time; the other in poverty, hunger and dirt, 
knowing no difference between right and wrong save 
what his own royal heart taught him." 



XXVII. 

GRATITUDE A FRAGRANT FLuWER OF LIFE. 

Blow, blow thou wintry wind, 

Thou art not so unkind 

As man's ingratitude. Shakespeare. 

Life is made up of giving and taking. We are mu- 
tual dependents, and to evince some signs of appre- 
ciation for that which is done for us is kindly, just 
and honorable. 

It is a small thing to say, "Thank you," but, it is 
pleasant to remember. In the formation of habit, it 
is well to make it a point to remember our benefac- 
tors, whoever they may be. 

It is a great heart, a good heart, that cherishes 
blessings conferred, and ingratitude is baseness itself. 
To think of all that may have been done for one, and 
then to see that one turn thanklessly aside, and pass 
his friend, unnoticed, is wrong and cruel. This is not 
to say, that one should perform good acts for the sake 
of the gratitude to be expressed in return. 

No, the act should be done because it is right to do 
it, but it is a mark of kind appreciation to acknowl- 
edge benefits. 

We need not remember insults, but we should strive 
never to forget a benefit. In the hospital at Scutari 
the eyes of the sick and dying soldiers, as they wist- 
fully followed the form of Florence Nightingale, as 
131 



132 RIGHT LIVING 

she noiselessly moved among them, expressed the 
deep gratitude they were too ill to speak. 

There are some who profess gratitude to those who 
render assistance in trouble, but cease to recall the 
debt they owe when once the danger is passed. 

"Save me, doctor, and I'll give you a check for a 
thousand dollars," moaned a sick man. 

The doctor gave him a remedy that soon relieved 
him, and he called out, — "Keep at it, doctor, and I'll 
give you a check for five hundred dollars. " 

In an hour more he was able to sit up, and he 
calmly remarked, "Doctor, I feel like giving you a 
fifty dollar bill." When the doctor was ready to go, 
the sick man was up and dressed, and he followed the 
physician to the door, and said, "Say, doctor, send 
in your bill the first of the month." When just six 
months had been added to Time's bosom, the doctor 
sent in a bill amounting to five dollars. He was pressed 
to cut it down to three, and, after so doing, he sued to 
get it, got judgment, and the patient put in a stay 
of execution. 

Parents feel keenly the ingratitude of their children 
for whom they have done much, and for whose inter- 
ests they are always careful. But, this is their duty, 
it may be said. True. Yet it is a slight thing to 
say — "Papa, I am grateful for my good home, and for 
the good things you are constantly surrounding me 
with." Or "Mamma, it makes me proud and happy 
when I think I have so good and kind a mamma." 

The best way to show gratitude is not by speech, 
though that is always in order, when it comes from 
the heart, but by acts that speak as flaming swords. 

We should watch for occasions to testify our grat- 



GRA TITUDE A FRA GRANT FL O WER 133 

itude for that which is being done for us, at home, in 
school by our teachers, and, in social life, by our 
friends. 

A gentleman was traveling in Arkansas, when he 
met at a hotel an old friend whom he had not seen 
for twenty years. He was in great distress and had 
no money. After relating his troubles, he said, — 
"Can you let me have money enough to take me home 
to my family? I will pay you as soon as I can. The 
gentleman gave him all that he could spare, and the 
man, with his eyes full of grateful tears, went on his 
way rejoicing. Several months later, when the gen- 
tleman had given up hearing from his old-time friend, 
he received from him one day, a letter saying that 
mines of great value had been discovered upon his 
land, and he conveyed a pressing invitation to his bene- 
factor to come and share with him his prosperity. 
The gentleman went to the place indicated in the 
letter, found that the mines were indeed valuable, was 
made a half owner in them, and became, as well as his 
partner, a millionaire. His friend said to him — "You 
helped me over a hard place at a time when my needs 
were most urgent. I am glad to be able now, to do 
this in return for your great kindness." 

We are never sorry for being kind; never less a 
man or woman for acknowledging a kindness. 



XXVIII. 

IS REVERENCE A DUTY? 

Now lies he there, 
And none so poor to do him reverence. 

Shakespeare. 

Reverence is respect. In olden times respect and 
awe were mingled with fear. But that reverence which 
is yielded through fear is not of much value. The 
dread phantom of fear ought never to enter into the 
respect and esteem of a free people. It does not be- 
long there. That cannot be real reverence, behind 
which Fear stands with a lash; for in such case, one 
would seem to have reverence when the mind, were 
it not for fear, would deny it. 

It is often said that this is not an age of reverence 
— that in the old time, people, children, everybody 
were far more reverential than at present. In the 
past, learning was in the hands of the few. The 
masses were ignorant and they looked up with great 
awe to the learned and to those in power. Now, 
learning is more common — each individual may attain 
to that which is worthy of respect, however humble 
his circumstances. 

Children were brought up very rigidly in other gen- 
erations. The father was to the children a sort of 
king who claimed all rights and yielded none. 

Children feared the parent and the rod in his hand. 

When these children grew to be parents, remember - 
134 



IS RE VEREN CE A DUTY? 135 

ing their own hard childhood, they relaxed their dis- 
cipline over their children, and, possibly some have 
gone to the other extreme, in rearing them. 

The dash and hurry of the age, too, whereby many 
gain ideas quickly, make some pompous and very self- 
possessed. They think they know so much more than 
their fathers that they incline to lock down upon their 
simple ways and ideas. This is wrong. 

No one will be guilty of rudeness to a parent, or 
show a lack of reverence or respect toward the aged, 
when he has been well brought up, or pauses to think 
of his unjust conduct. Forwardness, or too great bold- 
ness of action, is never a good thing in boy or girl, 
man or woman. 

Neither was the trite saying of old — "Children should 
be seen and not heard," — a good thing. 

Many a child, longing to ask a question, has been 
repulsed and repressed. 

In this new and ever-broadening time, he is encour- 
aged, quietly, patiently, politely, to ask questions, 
and, respectfully to await an answer. 

Noble parents are entitled to reverence, for their con- 
stant devotion, their many acts of self-denial, their 
many days and nights of toil, care and anxiety. 

Teachers, who give their attention to the interests 
of their pupils, whose one sole object is to do their 
work of training and educating, carefully, truly, and 
rightfully, are worthy, and should receive the respect 
of scholars, parents and everyone. 

All that, in the past was good and true, all great 
achievements, all honest effort, all truth, is worthy 
of reverence. 

All endeavors in the present for good, aJLL aims for; 



136 RIGHT LIVING 

higher and nobler work should receive our respect. 
Honor should always be given where honor is due. 
Thus, we grow ourselves to be honorable, worthy of 
honor and respect. He, who, in the face of difficulties 
and dangers perils life and limb to save others from 
danger is most worthy of respect. Faithfulness to 
duty always inspires reverence. 

David Simmons was the engineer of the Pacific ex- 
press train. He was a true man. For twenty years 
he had held a place on an engine. Years ago, while 
dashing past Yonkers, Simmons called the attention of 
his fireman to a train which was sweeping down upon 
them like the wind. A collision seemed inevitable. 
The frightened fireman shouted, "Good-bye, Dave; 
I'm going to jump!" and sprang from the locomotive. 
Simmons stood with his hand upon the throttle of his 
engine, like a man of iron. In tne face of startling 
peril, he remembered his duty and stood at his post. 
A collision was averted, and the heroic engineer saved 
the lives of a hundred men. 

On Monday night, David Simmons was driving his 
train toward Albany at the rate of forty miles an hour. 
Near New Hamburg a red light was swung out as 
from an approaching train. The engineer saw it. It 
was the signal of danger. David Simmons then 
whistled down brakes, in the vain hope of stopping 
the express in time. His fireman took the alarm, and 
shouted to Simmons to leap for his life. The noble 
Simmons calmly answered, "I won't! I'll stay with 
my engine!" Again he stood like a man of iron at his 
post. The fireman sprang and saved his life. The 
engineer saw a train on the bridge. He realized that 
his only hope of safety was to dash through the ob- 



IS REVERENCE A DUTY? 137 

struction. He whistled off breaks and crowded on all 
steam. This was the work of an instant. Simmons 
peered into the darkness, shading his eyes with one 
hand, and was dashed into the jaws of death. David 
Simmons was a hero. His fate is sad; but his noble 
behavior is the only bright page in the dark history of 
the awful accident at New Hamburg. 

Such instances of bravery and faithfulness win our 
reverence. So, in the lesser experiences of life there 
are many occasions of heroism never known to the 
public, but which are worthy of the reverence of hu- 
manity. 

Be gentle and respectful. That which you give re- 
turns to you in the same coin. 

Revere that which is worthy. 



XXIX. 



SELF-RELIANCE. 



Nature does not answer man's questions and lamentings — it hurls 
him inexorably back on his own help Fuerbach. 

Help yourself. Franklin. 

One of the first lessons of life is that of self-reli- 
ance. The baby takes it when he learns to stand 
alone. 

And all the way through life, the command is — 
Depe?id on yourself. 

Morally, no one has any right to lean helplessly 
upon others, waiting for them to make a straight path 
to walk in. Each should make his own way and be 
proud to do it. 

If you idly wait in the march of life, some one will 
be sure to thrust you to the wall and go on ahead. 

Would you care to be in the rear? No; then go 
ahead yourself. 

You have a clear understanding, good health, active 
hands and an active mind. 

He who depends upon himself finds happiness in 
trying. If he fails he will bring no one down with 
him. 

Why should we rely on ourselves? 

Because, thus we not only help ourselves but are 
helpful to others — to those who by constitution, her- 
edity, circumstances, are unable to help themselves. 
138 



SELF-RELIANCE 139 

It is observed in life, that the successful persons are 
the resolute and self-reliant. 

What is self-reliance? 

It is to be in harmony with all laws of Nature and 
the highest morality, the qualities that stand out, by 
themselves, alone, but firm as granite. 

The march of life is onward; it does not stand still. 

We are on its ocean. We mark our course, or we 
drift, hither and yon, at mercy of wave and wind. 

He who relies on his own exertions, grows, enlarges, 
expands. 

Schools, and all institutions of learning are experi- 
ences of living. They are simply means to start germs 
of self-action. 

Nations are great, in proportion to the number of 
vigorous, moral, self-reliant men they hold. 

Governments are strong as they are composed of 
moral, self-reliant persons. 

Our national government is called the best, because 
citizens take active interest in it. 

As to schools, no school in itself can give a child 
learning. 

The scholar must exert himself. 

He is one of the nation. 

He is to become a part of the government, is to 
make government. 

If a national government, like ours in America, is 
progressive and strong, it is because the people are 
so. 

Energy, action, moral training, observance of moral 
rules, make nations and individuals happy and secure. 

Liberty is an effect of true moral growth. 

The prominent trait in those who have become great 



i-fo RIGHT LIVING 

in the world's estimation is, in all cases, energy, force, 
application, in a word, self-reliance. 

The character of a nation is but a reflex of the char- 
acter of its people; as they are strong, brave, ener- 
getic, liberty-loving, so will be the government and 
the nation. 

Never halt or waver when you know you are right. 
Never think you cannot succeed, but try, make an 
effort. 

You cannot know the elements that are in you to 
command success until you look within and bring out 
the hidden qualities latent there. 

A young man stood listlessly watching some anglers 
on a bridge. He was poor and dejected. At last 
approaching a basket filled with wholesome looking 
fish, he sighed "If now I had these I would be happy. 
I could sell them at a fair price and buy me food and 
lodgings." 

"I will give you just as many, and just as good 
fish," said the owner, who had chanced to overhear 
his words, "if you will do me a trifling favor." 

"And what is that?" asked the other. 

"Only to tend this line till I come back, I wish to 
go on a short errand." 

The proposal was gladly accepted. The old man 
was gone so long that the young man began to be im- 
patient. Meanwhile, the hungry fish snapped greedily 
at the baited hook, and the young man lost all his de- 
pression in the excitement of pulling them in; and 
when the owner of the line returned he had caught a 
large number. Counting out from them as many as 
were in the basket, and presenting them to the young 
man, the old fisherman said: "I fulfill my promise from 



SELF-RELIANCE 



141 



the fish you have caught, to teach you whenever you 
see others earning what you need, to waste no time 
in fruitless wishing, but cast a line for yourself." 
He who dares assert the ' 'I" 
May calmly wait 
While hurrying fate 
Meets his demands with sure supply. 

Wilmans. 



XXX. 

SELF-CONTROL. 

Man is his own star, and the soul that can 
Render an honest and a perfect man, 
Commands all light, all influence, all fate; 
Nothing to him falls early or, too late. 

Beaumont and Fletcher. 

I have made as much out of myself, as could be made of the stuff, 
and no man should require more. Richter. 

The self-poised, self-controlled person is the wise 
one. Self-respect and self-control, are two advantages, 
that, possessing, one need not fear failure in life. 

To what end is knowledge, education, wisdom, the 
exercise of moral faculties? 

Is it not in order to develop manhood, womanhood? 
— to make good citizens, upright and worthy members 
of society, who are entitled to esteem and respect? 

One of the finest qualities of such is self-control. 

To be able, under the most trying circumstances, 
to command one's self, to be always able to say to 
the rising passions of anger, jealousy, fear, or any 
emotion, "Peace, be still," is a great power. 

We are in the world to make the most of ourselves, 
and our opportunities. In order to do this we should 
acquire as early as possible, control over ourselves. 

Some are easily annoyed, quickly provoked, and 
142 



SELF- CONTR OL 143 

find it exceedingly hard to control that very unruly 
little member, the tongue, and, also, the facial muscles. 

Finding yourself one of this class, make a begin- 
ning immediately, try to repress the impatient word, 
the angry retort, and then, note afterward, how much 
better you feel by so doing. 

Plutarch tells that the geese of Cilicia, when they 
fly over Mt. Taurus, being afraid of the eagles, by 
which it is frequented, carry small stones in their 
mouths, to prevent them from indulging in their habit 
of gabbling and attracting the attention of the eagles. 

The reason and good sense of human beings enable 
them to do better than that, for they have the power 
to control the propensity to gabble if they will only 
exert it. The impulse to laugh, or, rather, to giggle, 
upon slight provocation, is very noticeable in some 
young people. It is not the proper thing, and may 
be productive of much shame and ridicule. To illus- 
trate. A clergyman was annoyed by people talking 
and giggling. He paused, looked at his hearers and 
said: "I am always afraid to reprove those who mis- 
behave, for this reason: Some years since, as I was 
preaching, a young man who sat before me, was con- 
stantly laughing, talking, and making uncouth grim- 
aces. I paused and administered a severe rebuke. 
After the close of the service a gentleman said to me : 
'Sir, you have made a great mistake; that young man 
was an idiot.' Since then, I have always been afraid 
to reprove those who misbehave, lest I should repeat 
that mistake and reprove another idiot." 

During the rest of the service there was good order. 

Again, there is an irrepressible desire to talk much 
and long. This tendency seems hard to control. 



144 RIGHT LIVING 

But a good listener makes more profit than a good 
talker. 

It is better to hear of exploits than to relate your 
own. 

We should strive to obtain such mastery over our- 
selves that we can easily listen, "while we say little. 

Among strangers, learn of their ways, habits, bus- 
iness, but be chary of relating your own. 

Learn to bridle your tongue. 

Much trouble would be avoided, many a murder 
would not have been committed, had man been taught 
self-control. 

Thus, can it easily be seen that self-control is bet- 
ter for society, better for the individual. 

It is protection. 

In panics, fires, or in any sudden alarm, the self- 
controlled individual arises and holds a rushing, mad- 
dened crowd in check, wards off evil and disaster, 
and brings order from confusion. 

It is related of Daniel Webster, upon one occasion, 
in Faneuil Hall, Boston, the great crowd in the build- 
ing, many of whom were standing, swayed and moved 
from side to side. There was some reason to suppose 
there might occur danger to life, the throng was so 
dense. 

The great orator and statesman spoke, as follows: 
"Let each one of you stand firm! This is the first 
principle of self-government." So it is. Let us al- 
ways remember it. 

Be firm. 

Be self-governed. 

Be monarch of yourself. 



XXXI. 

SELF-RESPECT. 

Those who respect themselves will be honorable; but he who thinks 
lightly of himself, will be held cheap by the world. 

Chinese Proverb. 

To win the respect of others, one must first respect 
himself. The foundation of good morals is in self- 
respect. 

The self-respecting man is able to face the world 
with a calm eye and a clear conscience. He has abil- 
ity to stand fearless before any tribunal. 

Respect for one's self lifts one at once into an atmos- 
sphere of sweetness, purity and real beauty. It makes 
one strong and brave and wholesome. It makes him 
a good, noble and trusted member of the community. 
It confers upon him a high title — that of true man- 
hood. 

How careful, then, should we be to win and wear 
the white ribbon of self-respect. 

Have you a beautiful garment, quite new and cost- 
ly? Would you draggle it in the mud and filth of 
the street? Would you spit upon it or put it in a 
stable, to be trampled upon by the beasts? No. 

Is not the human body of far finer fabric? 

Is not the mind of more beautiful texture than any 
garment ever woven? You admit it. Then, can you 
trail the king's vesture of thought in that which dis- 
honors and disgraces? 

145 



146 RIGHT LIVING 

Would you lower the natural dignity and grace of 
mind in the abyss of uncleanness and filth? 

There is a cesspool of low, groveling thought, in 
which self-respect is lost, or stained in dishonor. 

Ruskin says thought continually chisels upon the 
human countenance and the keen observer can easily 
detect the tenor of the mind, whether it be clean or 
unclean. 

To lose self-respect is one of the greatest and one 
of the most trying losses of mankind. 

One may be poor in this world's goods, may lack 
many of the good things of life, may suffer loss of 
money, loss of friendship, but if he maintains his self- 
respect, he is a worthy citizen, a noble man, that no 
power can corrupt. 

This story is told of Col. Samuel Colt, who, in his 
life-time was inclined to be rather pompous. When 
he was building dwelling-houses for the workmen em- 
ployed in his great pistol factory, he, one day en- 
countered a boy picking up chips on his grounds. 

"What are you doing here?" he asked gruffly. 

"Picking up chips, sir," replied the 3 T oungster, quite 
unawed by the great presence. 

"Perhaps," said the great colonel, drawing himself 
up with dignity, "}^ou don't know who I am. Pm Col. 
Samuel Colt, and I live in that big house, yonder." 

The boy straightened up, swelled out, and answered, 
"Perhaps you don't know who I am. I'm Patrick 
Murphy, and live in that little shanty down yonder," 
pointing the direction. 

"Sonny," said the colonel, blandly, "go and pick 
up all the chips you want, and when you get out come 
for more." 



SELF-RESPECT 147 

That boy had self-respect, and, consequently felt 
himself in that quality quite the equal of the great 
millionaire. 

It is plainly to be seen that self-respect is a bright 
jewel that should be guarded with great care. 

It should be cherished as we cherish life. 

Why? 

Because it is a promoter of happiness. 

It makes others happy and wins their respect. It is 
an armor that protects from all powers that aim at 
destruction. 

It is the defender of the virtues — the promoter of 
morals. 

And while we respect ourselves, we will be sure to 
respect others. 

High or low, rich or poor, those who behave them- 
selves are entitled to respect and attention. 

Respect yourself. 

Act so that you will never think meanly of yourself. 

To walk uprightly, to win your own approval is a 
high aim, a great blessing. 

Respect yourself so much that it will be impossible 
for you to be a coward, to tell a falsehood, or to do a 
harmful thing in any event. Self-respect is better than 
fame, better than gold. 



XXXII. 

FOOLISH PRIDE AND SILLY PREJUDICE. 

Pride, of all others the most dangerous fault, 
Proceeds from want of sense, or want of thought. 

R. R. Springer. 

Pride, when it consists in a lofty self respect, a no- 
ble desire to keep the mind clean, pure and exalted, 
is justifiable. 

The pride of good conduct, right endeavor, true 
principles, is worthy and honorable. 

It is such pride that all should cultivate. But there 
is another sort of pride that vaunts itself in fine rai- 
ment, in an elegant equipage, in costly house or ex- 
travagant modes of living, that is despicable. 

There is a kind of pride that makes grand displays, 
and is desirous of impressing others, less favored, 
with its importance and grandeur. 

This is but another name for folly. 

Pride, arrayed in costly apparel thinks itself better 
than one in humbler garb. You must see at a glance, 
how ridiculous this is. 

The costliest silk dress was made from the thread 
of a worm. The finest wool grew on the back of a 
sheep. The sealskin sacque costing five hundred dol- 
lars, once kept an aquatic animal warm. The material 
of gloves may be traced to the dog, rat, kid, and a 
worm, while the cow and her calf furnish boots and 
148 



PRIDE AND PREJUDICE 149 

shoes. If you reflect a little, you will see how vain 
and silly it is to be proud of these things. 

To think that one is superior to another on account 
of possessions, is foolish and betokens ignorance. 
True worth is in the mind. 

We are to look at the garment of the mind, to see if 
that is of good fabric, if it will wear well. 

The clothing of the body will fade away. The in- 
ner garments are enduring and show the real worth, 
or the want of it. In college once, a young man was 
laughed at, on account of homespun clothing and cow- 
hide boots tut he was graduated at the head of his 
class, nevertheless, and took high rank in business, and 
the community in which he lived. 

Prejudice goes hand in hand with an ignoble pride. 
It wears spectacles, does prejudice, of different colors, 
and sees accordingly, blue, red, yellow or green, as 
is the color of the glass. It turns its back upon one 
seeing differently from itself. It flings a word of hatred 
and scorn here and there, because others fail to walk 
in its own little by-path. It puts up bars, and denies 
entrance to this field or that, and despises one who 
lets down the bars or leaps the fence. 

It wraps itself in its own dry cocoon of mouldy opin- 
ions, and would like every one to do the same. 

Prejudice is narrow, mean and fault-finding. 

It warps and shrivels the mind. 

It should be remembered that all have an honest 
right to think as they please. We are of one origin. 

Pride nor prejudice should ever separate us from 
one another. 

We all lie down in the dust, side by side at last. 

Life is full of stir, action. There should be no 
room in it for a vain pride or a foolish prejudice. 



150 RIGHT LIVING 

Neither pride or prejudice brings happiness or con- 
tentment. 
Says Saxe — 

Because you flourish in worldly affairs, 
Don't be haughty and put on airs, 

With insolent pride of station; 
But learn for the sake of your mind's repose 
That all proud flesh wherever it grows 

Is subject to irritation. 

Benjamin Franklin, rose to distinction, amid hard- 
ship, privation and toil. The following story was 
told by a gentleman in Boston, who remembered the 
old house in which Franklin was born. "Often," said 
he, "have I looked at the old tumble-down building 
in Milk Street and imagined the barefoot boy, sitting 
on the doorstep, learning to spell from an old post- 
bill." 

A proud young girl, daughter of a distinguished cit- 
izen, one day passed him while thus engaged, and the 
boy overheard her words of ridicule, as with curling 
lip she laughed at the eagerness of the poor lad, and 
scornfully derided his "beautiful spelling-book!" 

But there came another day when Franklin was am 
bassador from this country to the Court of France. A 
wealthy American lady, who was present at one of 
the festive occasions made in honor of Franklin, greatly 
desired an introduction to her distinguished country- 
man. It was obtained and great was her surprise to 
hear him say: "Aye, aye, we have met before." 

She could not remember when, and Franklin added, 
"You do not remember the barefooted little boy in 
Milk Street, studying his lesson from the muddy post- 
bill!" 



PRIDE AND PREJUDICE 151 

Although spoken good-humoredly, the fair lady was 
much disconcerted by the remembrance of the inci- 
dent. It is to be hoped she learned a lesson there- 
from, in regard to the foolishness of a false pride, as 
well as to treat every one with proper respect, no mat- 
ter how poor or ragged they may be. 

She knew not the name of the barefoot boy; but, he 
knew her to be the daughter of the rich Mr, — and 
after being introduced, this incident of his childhood 
immediately occurred to his mind. 

The one who is despised to-day may be honored to- 
morrow. 

Put away vain pride and shallow prejudice. Treat 
all kindly and tenderly, for we are all brothers and 
sisters, and belong to the same great human family. 



XXXIII. 

ANGER, THE DISTORTER. 

He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that rul- 
eth his spirit than he that taketh a city. Bible. 

We get our word anger from the Latin angor. It 
means compression of the neck, strangling. In the 
medical profession, the word is used to denote sore- 
ness, inflammation. As ordinarily applied, it means an 
intense passion, or emotion, induced by real or fan- 
cied injury. 

Among the savages and uncivilized nations, anger, 
rage, and jealousy are seldom curbed; and among 
animals, both wild and domestic, may be witnessed 
instances of rage, frantic and ungovernable. 

We expect nothing different from these creatures. 

They know no better. 

But for civilized and enlightened beings to display 
passion is revolting and deplorable. Having been 
taught better they should do better. 

We look for more and better things from the wise, 
than from the ignorant. 

If you are quick to anger, strive with all your might 
to subdue it, to control and check such disposition, 
for it is a sure mark of the wild beast and the savage. 

"What! must I keep my madness in my mouth?" 
said a bright little girl, who was prone to anger on 
very slight occasions. "Yes, it is better to do so," 
152 



ANGER, THE DISTORTER 153 

was the reply. Reflecting a moment she said — '"Tis 
a pretty hard thing to do, but I will try. " She did 
try, and overcame the propensity. Let me show you 
wherein anger is an evil. 

The angry person exposes himself to the pity, con- 
tempt, ridicule, and, sometimes disgust of witnesses 
of his anger. People cannot think well of one who 
manifests passion by a loud tone of voice, profanity, 
by kicking over chairs, or whatever stands in his way, 
throwing books about and slamming doors. 

We all like to be thought well of, but a person sub- 
ject to fits of anger cannot hope to win high respect. 
We hear sometimes of a personal devil. Would you 
see one? 

When you are very angry, run and take a peep at 
yourself in the mirror. See what a face it is you be- 
hold! How distorted! How red and swollen! How 
the veins of the neck are enlarged! How fierce the 
eyes! How much like a fiend is the reflection! Is it 
a wild animal with distended nostrils and dishevelled 
hair that you see? No, it is yourself. Are you not so 
ashamed that you will never again let your angry pas- 
sions rise? 

Anger is disastrous to health, as well as happiness. 
The action of the heart is increased in fits of rage. 
People have dropped dead in a tumult of ungovern- 
able anger. 

There is such a thing as righteous indignation akin 
to anger, which is pardonable — as when we see an- 
other imposed upon, treated unjustly, or unfairly. We 
have a right to resent such treatment, to take the part 
of the feeble and unprotected, and to make their cause, 
when just, our own. So we may resent unrighteous 
treatment of ourselves, but not in anger. 



I54 RIGHT LIVING 

Some one has said, when angry, stop and count ten 
before you speak; if very angry, count twenty; if an- 
gry clear through, all over, then count one hundred. 
When you feel the sparks of anger rising and snap 
ping in your mind, when they scintillate in your eyes, 
it is better to be silent and bite your lips. The fire 
will soon go out, and you will feel all the better for 
it. When anger is concealed in your mind, then you 
are master of it. If it gets out, it is your master. It 
should be always in check, because it is important 
that we be always master of ourselves. 

A gentleman, who was engaged to be married to a 
lady, said to possess a violent temper, resolved to 
test it. He procured a skein of very snarly sewing 
silk, and asked her to unravel and wind the same, 
which he held , in his hands, "Oh, yes, certainly," 
said the lady, smiling. The task was a most difficult 
one, and the gentleman was struck at the remarkable 
amiability displayed by his fiancee. At last the feat 
was accomplished and no signs of ill-temper shown on 
the part of the lady. After the couple were married, 
however, there were unmistakable evidences of a bad 
temper shown by the wife. 

"How happened it, my dear," asked the husband, 
"that you displayed such an angelic disposition when I 
set you to unwinding the snarl in the silk, since you 
are so quick tempered as to display signs of anger on 
the slightest provocation?" 

"Have you ever noticed the bed-post in my room? 
she asked. "The one that is so dented and defaced?" 
"Yes. When I was unwinding the snarl, you ob- 
served I frequently left the room. In my rage I would 
gnaw the post, and when calm again, return to you and 
the silk, smiling and pleasant." 



ANGER, THE DISTORTER 155 

"Then," said the husband, "I would suggest that 
you continue in the same line, that I may see less of 
your abominable temper." 

When one approaches you in anger should you re- 
tort in the same tone? No. Speak kindly, and note 
how quickly the change in the angry one. Meet the 
frowning face with a smile, the cross word with a 
pleasant, happy one, the flashing, angry glance with a 
twinkle and an expression of good-humor. 

Anger is the sign-manual of our relationship to wild 
beasts. It belongs to the childhood of the race. As 
we rise toward the dignity of true manhood and wo- 
manhood we become ashamed of its manifestations. 
Self-respect and self-control both say,"Away with it. 
Let its breath not sully or stain a page of the book 
of this glorious human life.'* 

Anger is belittling. It is disgraceful. 

It is barbaric. 

It belongs to dark ages. 

Spite is its twin brother. 

They are children of ignorance. 

An old stanza reads — 

The wise will let their anger cool, 

At least before 'tis night; 
But in the bosom of a fool, 

It burns till morning light." 

But the really wise, the truly great, will not suffer 
himself to be angry at all. 

Think how silly it is to be angry with another! 
Wherefore is it? Is he dull? Have patience with 
him. Is he ignorant? You being wiser, should in- 
struct him. Is he wicked? Find that which makes 
him so, and remove it. 



I5 6 RIGHT LIVING 

Be gentle and considerate, but do not be angry with 
him. 

AS TO QUARRELS. 

Some are naturally quarrelsome. They seem never 
happy unless in a quarrelsome dispute. This is 
neither right or agreeable, because it makes un- 
happy such as like peace and quietness; because the 
loud, the vehement voice and angry gestures, are not 
pleasant to hear or to witness; because quarrels do 
not lead to happiness, but to misery and wretchedness. 
The aim of all should be toward a loftier standard of 
living than that which results from quarreling. 

In the depths of a forest there .lived two foxes who 

never had a cross word with each other. One said 

Dne day in the politest fox language, "Let's quarrel." 

"Very well," said the other, "as you please, my 

dear friend; but how shall we set about it?" 

"Oh, it can't be difficult," said fox number one; 
"two-legged people fall out; why should not we?" 

So they tried all sorts of ways, but it could not be 
done, because each would give way. At last number 
one fetched two stones. 

"There!" said he, "you say they're yours and I'll say 
they're mine, and we will quarrel and fight and scratch. 
Now I'll begin. These stones are mine." 

"Very well," answered the other, gently, "you're 
welcome to them." 

"But, we shall never quarrel at this rate!" said the 
other, jumping up and licking his face. 

"You old simpleton, don't you know that it takes 
two to make a quarrel, anyway?" 

So they gave it up as a bad job, and never tried to 
play at this simple game again. 

Think of this story when you feel inclined to quarrel. 



XXXIV. 

THE ANGEL OF FORGIVENESS. 

"We are too human to condemn a brother; 

Perchance the same temptation if it found us, 
Would prove us weaker far than many another, 

And wrap its veil of obloquy around us." Anon. 

What is forgiveness? It is the ceasing of resent- 
ment toward one who has wronged us. 

Why should we forgive? 

Because we are human and not without faults our- 
selves. 

Because we would like to be forgiven for wrong- 
doing. 

Because it is manly, it is noble, it is just and hon- 
orable 

Pittacus says, "Forgiveness is more beautiful than 
vengeance; the first is human, the last is brutal." 

And, should we not desire to grow more human, 
more greatly human in the best sense of the word? 

Should we not try to extinguish base passion and 
develop high and lofty virtues? 

For what purpose? 

That we may thus become better and nobler in the 
home, the school, in society, everywhere ; and also, 
that we may stand as examples, fit for others to follow 
and emulate. Besides, as Voltaire wisely said, "We 
are all full of weaknesses and errors; let us mutually 
157 



1 5 8 RIGHT L I VING 

pardon each other, our follies — it is the first law of 
nature. " 

It is not known how soon you, yourself, may be 
guilty of some act in an unguarded moment, for which 
you would crave forgiveness. 

Then, ought you, in reason, to withhold from others 
that which } t ou would like for yourself? 

Justice tells you, you should not. 

But what if forgiveness is not sought? Should you 
forgive the same? 

Even, though the offense be not regretted by the 
offending party that is no reason you should not re- 
gret it, and show by your personal behavior, how su- 
perior you are to carrying an offence permanently. 

Life is too brief to cherish resentment, and an un- 
forgiving nature. In its place we should put kind- 
ness, forbearance, good-will, greatness of human na- 
ture. These are the surest weapons to overthrow all 
enemies. 

In the negotiations between the courts of England 
and Spain, King James the First, then at Theobalds, 
was one day much vexed at missing some important 
papers which he had received relative to the marriage 
of his son to the Spanish princess. On recollection, 
he was persuaded that he had given them to the care 
of his old servant, Gib, a Scotsman, who was one of 
the gentleman of the king's bed-chamber. Gib, on 
being called, declared humbly and firmly, that no 
such papers had ever been given to his care, which 
so enraged the king that he kicked him as he bent 
down before him. 

"Sir," exclaimed Gib, instantly rising, "I have 
Served you from my youth, and you never found me 



THE ANGEL OF FORGIVENESS 159 

unfaithful. I have not deserved this injustice from 
you, nor can I live longer with you since my honesty 
is disputed. Fare ye well, sir, and I will never see 
your face more. " 

Poor Gib instantly set off to town. No sooner was 
the circumstance known in the palace than the papers 
were brought to the king by Endymion Porter, to 
whom he had given them. His majesty then asked 
for Gib, and being told that he was gone, ordered his 
servants to post after him and bring him back, vowing 
that he would not sleep until he had seen him, and 
made some reparation for the wrong he had been guilty 
of, in suspecting so faithful a servant. When Gib en- 
tered the royal apartment, the king ran to embrace 
him, then, kneeling before the astonished servant, 
humbly begged his pardon ; nor, would he rise from 
this humble posture till he had compelled the deeply 
wounded, but now restored servant, to pronounce the 
word of absolution. 

What a world this would be to live in if forgiveness 
were impossible! 

Man would be no longer man, but a creature below 
the brute ; for the brutes forgive. The dog will lick 
the hand that strikes him down. Forgiveness is the 
sweet flower of moral greatness. 

It is the green foliage of moral worth. 

It is the royal power of benevolence. 

It is the symbol of humanity, brave and beautiful. 

It is the bond of human brotherhood. 

It is the strength of great minds. 



XXXV. 

OBSERVATION A GREAT FACULTY. 

Some men will learn more in the Hampstead stage than others in 
the tour of England. Johnson. 

Two lads went to the seaside. One saw only water 
and sand; the other saw beautiful aquatic plants, long 
strips of sea-grass like ribbons, swarms of busy insects 
and small fishes, pink-tinted shells, and living creat- 
ures in them, the whitest pebbles, king crabs, mol- 
lusks, jelly-fish and little eels, the wonderful ebb and 
flow of the tides, and banks full of lively clams and 
dull oysters. He was full of information, and it was a 
delight to listen to the account of his trip. There 
are eyes to the mind, so to speak, as well as the out- 
ward organs of vision. They can be trained to see 
much in a world teeming with beauty and knowledge. 
Many rare curiosities may be seen on every hand when 
eyes are opened to them. 

Our eyes are for seeing, not to be blinded, closed all 
the way through life. 

Do you know how it was we came to have suspen- 
sion bridges? I will tell you. Capt. Samuel Brown 
was occupied in the contemplation of the construction 
of a bridge across the river Tweed. He could hardly 
get hold of the right idea until one morning, when 
walking in his garden, he observed the beauty of the 
autumn-tinted leaves, and the beads of dew upon them. 
1G0 



OB SEE VA TION A GEE A T FACULTY 1 6 1 

As he paused to admire the lovely scene before him, 
he saw a spider's web suspended immediately across 
his path. "Ah," said he, "this is just what we want!" 
The idea suggested, he went to work and produced 
the bridge. The great Brooklyn Bridge is an illustra- 
tion of the thought inspired by the spider's web. 

An apple fell from a tree. Sir Isaac Newton noted 
its dropping to the ground and from that simple oc- 
currence the knowledge of gravitation was evolved. 
How many millions of apples had fallen before that 
time, and thought nothing of! 

The discovery of the diffraction of light was dis- 
covered by a man (Dr. Young,) watching the changing 
colors of a soap-bubble. So might thousands of in- 
stances be cited where the great benefits of life have 
been suggested by that which at first, would appear 
trifling and insignificant. 

When Columbus was sailing in quest of a new 
world, the time seeming long to the seamen, they 
arose in mutiny; and Columbus, anxious and dis- 
tressed, knew not how to subdue it. 

Looking into the water he observed a bit of sea- 
grass, such as is cast up along shore. "See," said he, 
"we are nearing the land. This kind of sea weed is 
never found in mid-ocean." The mutinous uprising 
was quelled at once. This knowledge of the nature 
of sea-weeds was due to observation. 

We sometimes are apt to think little things of only 
slight importance, unworthy of notice, but, 

"Tall oaks from little acorns grow." 

When Franklin discovered that lightning and elec- 
tricity were one and the same, people laughed at him, 



1 62 RIGHT LIVING 

and many did not believe it. "Whaf's the use of it?" 
they said. "It won't amount to anything." "What is 
the use of a child?" answered Franklin. "It may 
become a man." To-day the electric telegraph, tele- 
phone, phonograph, the beautiful electric light, all 
speak the importance and usefulness of Franklin's 
great discovery. 

Great results follow small beginnings. We begin 
with ABC and master the alphabet at last. 

It is our business to take note of everything around 
and about. The busy brain, the observant eye is that 
which the world calls for. Observation makes skilled 
workmen and these command highest prices in the 
labor markets. By observation, one may learn where- 
in he lacks; the qualities most desirable, also, he may 
thus discover. Thus, observation may be a discipline 
of the mental and moral nature. The mistakes and 
failures we observe make us more careful and cau- 
tious. 

The purpose of training is to develop all faculties 
— the whole being. 

He who walks with brain alert, and hands ready for 
action in any good cause, is an important factor in 
the nation to which he belongs — is a part of the saving 
power of the country. 

OPPORTUNITY. 

Observation and opportunity are close friends. He 
who looks for opportunities can find them. But, it 
requires a cool brain to perceive the golden opportu- 
nity when it presents itself. 

It is said that "Opportunity has hair in front, be- 
hind she is bald; if you seize her by the forelock, you 



OBSERVATION A GREAT FACULTY 163 

may hold her, but, if suffered to escape, not Jupiter 
himself can catch her again." 

A good moral understanding sharpens the vision, 
intensifies the intellect and gives tone and energy to 
the whole being. Thus, if you would make the most 
of opportunities, you must have not only quick obser- 
vation, but keen judgment, power to see where energy 
may be applied, and excellent moral qualities, which 
give vigor to effort. An intellect clouded by intoxi- 
cants, warped by prejudice, cannot see the opportu- 
nities at hand. The mind is clogged and moves slowly 
and laboriously in a time-old routine. Four young 
men were seen reeling and staggering along the street, 
tottering under the influence of bar-room and saloon. 
They could not see the best opportunity. Behind them, 
with • brisk, energetic step, walked one whose eyes 
were wide opened to see and seize upon any opportunity 
for good. 

It is not difficult to map out the career of these five 
young men. Four are heading toward the station- 
house, the jail and the penitentiary. Poverty, dis- 
ease, misery, perhaps murder and suicide are waiting 
for them. The fifth, with bright, onward vision, goes 
straight on to business, honor, fame, fortune. He is 
watchful and observant. He will turn every opportu- 
nity to account. 

Sir Humphrey Davy entered in his notebook these 
words: "I have neither riches, nor power, nor birth 
to recommend me; yet, if I live, I trust I shall not 
be of less service to mankind and my friends than if 
I had been born with all these advantages. " With this 
chart before him, and a mind open to convictions, 
quick to see and take the present opportunity, how 



164 RIGHT LIVING 

could he help but become famous — one of the greatest 
chemists of the world? 

The architect of the great Crystal Palace, Sir Joseph 
Paxton, was gardener to the Duke of Devonshire. 
Plans for the palace were called for by advertisement. 
This gardener had not even drawing paper at his com- 
mand. He wanted to make a plan of the palace right 
off. What do you suppose he did? He seized the first 
piece of paper near him which happened to be a sheet 
of blotting paper. He drew a plan which was accepted 
as the best possible. Do you think he was enabled to 
draw that plan on the impulse of the moment? No; 
the drawing had been preceded by years of care, years 
of toil, years of study. 

We live a large life by using the faculty of observa- 
tion. By observation we see that those who pay heed 
to the laws of nature, who walk uprightly, who try to 
conduct themselves as nearly right as they know, live 
honorable lives and are happy. 

Observation shows, also, that opportunities are open 
on every side to those who look for them, 

Reason tells us to use our eyes and our common 
sense in our journey through the world, if we would 
be happy, and contribute to the happiness of others 



XXXVI. 

PERSEVERANCE, THE FRIEND OF MAN. 

There is to whom all things are easy: his mind as a master key, 
Can open, with intuitive address, the treasures of art and science, 
There is to whom all things are hard; but industry giveth him a 

crowbar 
To force with groaning labor 
The stubborn lock of learning. Tupper. 

The accomplishment of aims, the successes in life 
are due to concentration of effort, to energy and per- 
severance. We see persons plodding along day after 
day, not showing much for their work at first, but 
finally astonishing every one by their acquirements 
and prosperity. "They have genius!" it is said. Bat 
what is genius? Burfon said "genius is only patience. " 

It is work. 

It is the power to start at work with an object in 
view, to never let that object out of sight, to keep 
straight on, no matter what stumbling blocks are in 
the path. 

It is the keeping steady at one employment till the 
work is complete. 

It is the not being discouraged. 

Success does not come by accident. It comes by- 
utilization of time, by thought, by reason, by work. 
"Such an one is lucky," you say. But is there any 
such thing as luck? "Luck!" said the Duke of Well- 
ington, "I made luck." Instead of luck the force that 
165 



1 66 RIGHT LIVING 

wins is application. Kepler was a lifetime working 
out his three laws of the universe. 

A busy lawyer mastered the French language by 
employing just fifteen minutes after dinner every day 
to its study. Elihu Burritt, called "the learned black 
smith. " attributed his success to the persevering habit 
of utilizing "odd moments." He earned his daily 
bread at the blacksmith's forge, and, at the same time, 
learned eighteen ancient and modern languages and 
twenty-two European dialects. He said, "All that I 
have accomplished, or expect, or hope to accomplish, 
has been and will be, by that plodding, patient per- 
severing process of accretion which builds the ant- 
heap, particle by particle, thought by thought, fact 
by fact. And if ever I was actuated by ambition, its 
highest and warmest aspiration reached no further 
than the hope to set before the young men of the 
country an example in employing those valuable frag- 
ments of time called "odd moments." 

He did make an example for you and for me, and 
for all. 

He taught us a lesson of perseverance — how to keep 
right on in our work and not falter or faint. 

If we sink under discouragement, or adverse circum- 
stances, we are lost. 

The thing to do is to sink discouragement, not our- 
selves. 

It is to plunge into labor, if we mean to achieve an 
end. 

To aim toward a high mark, and resolve by all fair 
means to reach it, is wisdom. To do a little at this, 
and a little at that, is scattering energies, wasting time. 
Darwin was a man, as all admit, of great worth to the 



PERSE VERANCE 1 67 

world. How did he become so? By perseverance, 
by putting all his force and energy into his work, and 
employing every moment of time, in spite of a poor 
state of health and many drawbacks. 

"Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing 
well." And, in whatever we undertake, we need to 
put health, strength, power, energy. For that purpose 
we should see that we live truly and morally, because 
right methods of living, give us power, energy, force, 
pluck, perseverance. 

The men and women most needed in the world, 
which is a great industrial and moral school, a college 
to teach people how to live, are the men and women 
of energy and perseverance. Without such, the bus- 
iness of living would totter and reel backward. 

Failure is not to be entertained as the final goal. 

One attempt, two, three or four, may be fruitless. 

Try again, and still again. 

If you get thrown, in an encounter with work, jump 
up, roll up your sleeves and start in again. 

If you are trying to overcome evil with good, and 
it seems all up-hill labor, call all your best forces, 
take a night's rest, and start on with renewed vigor. 
Hopefulness and the will to do, are what you want. 

If others outrun you in the race take a long breath 
and distance them by strength and perseverance. 

Do not let the word "Fail" come into your mind as 
a possible result, but go straight toward the purpose 
in view, slowly, it may be, but, surely, till the end 
sought is accomplished. 

It was only by intense and thorough application for 
years, unceasing devotion to his cause, that Humboldt 
gave to the world his Cosmos. All men and women 



1 68 RIGHT LIVING 

who bless the world by their successes, have not done 
so, by means of any special favoritism of fortune, but 
by hard labor and thorough application. The road 
their feet trod is open for you and for all. 

THE SPIDER A TEACHER. 

The famous Robert Bruce of Scotland, having been 
defeated in battle, was obliged to flee and hide him- 
self sometimes in the woods and sometimes in the 
huts of poor peasants; for his enemies were in hot 
pursuit and determined upon his death if they could 
but find him. 

One morning after a sleepless night of weariness and 
anxiety, he was lying on a heap of straw, alone in a 
deserted hut, and he felt greatly depressed and al- 
most discouraged. Ashe lay there thinking, he looked 
up and saw a spider trying to swing himself by his 
thread, from one beam to another. The spider failed 
and the thread swung back to its former position. He 
made another effort, fell back again, but immediately 
renewed the attempt. The attention of Bruce was now 
fully aroused and his feelings enlisted for the little 
insect. Again and again the little creature failed, but 
as often renewed the attempt with unabated energy, 
and after thirteen unsuccessful efforts, succeeded in 
the fourteenth, in reaching the desired position. 

The lesson of perseverance taught by the spider, 
roused the desponding hero to new exertion. He arose, 
went forth from his hiding-place, collected his friends^ 
defeated his enemies in a great and decisive battle, 
and was soon after crowned King of Scotland. 

Perseverance is a great help to right-living. In 
a right direction, it keeps the mind clean, pure, and 
free from taint of wrong-doing. It makes us strong to 



PERSE VERANCE 1 69 

overcome that which is destructive and hurtful. Hence, 
we should strive to keep and hold to this good quality 
at all times and in all places. 

Make this thy high and grand resolve, 
Though cloud and tempest linger near; 

Though shadows dark round thee revolve, 
In all right ways to persevere. 



XXXVII. 

PUNCTUALITY, A PROMOTER OF SUCCESS. 

Punctuality is the politeness of kings. Louis XIV. 

Be punctual. In whatever you undertake remember 
punctuality is one of the first marks in the score of 
success. 

"Be on hand" is an excellent motto. The one who 
comes late to breakfast will be apt to come late to 
every other place. 

If you have an appointment it is certainly better to 
be fifteen minutes early than a half minute late, even 
though you wait outside till the clock strikes the hour 
for your admittance. 

Nothing is ever lost by being on time, while much 
is sometimes taken, by being a little late. 

Lord Nelson was free to say that he owed all his 
success in life to having been always a quarter of an 
hour before the time set for any engagement. 

By lack of promptitude, you may disarrange the 
affairs of a day. "Time and tide wait for no man." It 
is wrong to compel any man to wait for us. 

To learn the value of time is a great acquisition. 
Knowing it, you start early enough to accomplish all 
your desires, and affairs move smoothly on, without 
haste or trouble. Appointments met on the hour, bus- 
iness attended to promptly, make no confusion, puts 

no one out. 

170 



PUNCTUALITY 171 

Whatever is to be done, no matter how disagreeable 
the doing, it is better to go about it and get it done 
at once. Do not wait until the last moment, and 
then run for life, overturning things in the way, and 
rush about your work with the fury of a madman. 

Start right in the morning, and you will be apt to go 
right the whole day. 

Time is the most valuable possession in a sense, 
because it comes not back again. Once gone it is gone 
forever. 

No one is surer of making friends than he who has 
the habit of punctuality. 

What does punctuality show? It shows that we 
are faithful to ourselves and regardful of others. 

Is not this a virtue? 

It certainly is. 

An English publisher by the name of Tegg, arose 
from a very humble position in life to distinction. He 
said that he "had lodged with beggars and had had 
the honor of presentation to royalty, and that he attrib- 
uted his success to three things — punctuality as to 
time, self-reliance and integrity in word and deed." 

When we fail to be punctual we are an impediment 
in the way of those who are disposed to habits of 
promptitude. 

We have no moral right to thus interfere with the 
arrangements of others. 

As we would like others to be punctual with us, 
so should we take care to be punctual ourselves. 

Punctuality wins confidence. People have reason to 
believe that the punctual man is the conscientious 
one; thus punctuality gives tone and respect, quality 
and force to character. Business first, pleasure after- 
ward, is the word of the person of punctualit}\ 



172 RIGHT LIVING 

An honest farmer once called upon the late Roger 
M. Sherman, the celebrated lawyer, and told him he 
wanted an opinion. He had heard a great deal about 
the value of Mr. Sherman's opinions and how a great 
many people went to him to get an opinion, and 
John, who had never had, nor was likely to have a 
lawsuit or other difficulty for a lawyer to help him 
from, thought he would have an opinion. 

"Well, John, what can I do to help you?" said Mr. 
S. when John in his turn was shown into the room. 

"Why, lawyer," replied John, "I happened to be in 
town, and, having nothing to do, I thought I would 
come and get your opinion." 

"State your case, John, What's the matter?" 

"Oh, nothing. I ain't got no lawsuit; I only want 
to get one of your opinions; they say they are very 
valuable. " 

"But, John — about what" 

"Oh, anything, sir; take your pick and choice." 

Mr. Sherman, seeing the notion of his client on the 
matter in hand, took a pen and writing a few words 
folded them up and handed them to John, who care- 
fully placed them in his pocket. 

"What's to pay, sir?" 

"Four and six-pence, Yankee money — 75 cents." 

When John returned home the next morning, he 
found his wife, who took the lead in business matters, 
anxiously discussing with his chief farm servant, the* 
propriety of getting in a large quantity of oats that 
day, which had been cut on the day previous. 

John, was appealed to, to settle the question, but 
he could not decide. At length he said, "I'll tell you 
what, Polly; I've been to a lawyer and got an opinion 



PUNCTUALITY 173 

that cost me four and six-pence. There it is — read her 
out; it's a lawyer's writing, and I can't make head 
or tail out of it." 

John, b)' the way, could not read the plainest print; 
but Polly, who was something of a scholar, opened 
the paper and read as follows: "Be punctual, never 
put off till to-morrow what can be done to-day." 

"Enough said!" cried John. "Them oats must be 
got in." And they were "got in," and the same night 
such a storm came on as otherwise would have ruined 
them entirely. 

John afterward often consulted the opinion and acted 
upon it; and, to this day entertains a high estimate 
of lawyers' opinions generally, and of the lamented 
Mr. Sherman's in particular. 

It would be a good thing to post the motto of punc- 
tuality in every conspicuous place in town and coun- 
try. It would save a deal of trouble and sorrow. 



XXXVIII. 

THE DIFFICULTIES OF LIFE. 

Our times of greatest pleasure are when we have won some high 
peak of difficulty, trodden under foot some evil, and felt, day by day, 
so sure a growth of moral strength within us that we cannot conceive 
of an end of growth. Stopford Brooke. 

This would be a dull world indeed, were there no 
obstacles to overcome. If the paths in life were 
smooth, if all the roads were macadamized for us, 
and we had only to travel on, uninterrupted, we would 
soon become as stupid and sluggish as snails. 

What are difficulties for? 

To remove, of course. Who is to remove them? 
You, and you, and you. 

What is the purpose of stumbling-blocks? 

To show how easily they may be kicked out of the 
way. By whom? 

By those in whose path they seem to have fallen. 

Who else knows how to do this necessary duty so 
well, or so ably? 

Why should there exist so many shades and shams 
to mar the lot of man? To be dispersed, put away, 
as well as to show the difference between shadows and 
sunlight, and the glowing beauty of truth. Who can 
fight error and put to flight and dismay, the hypocri- 
sies in the world, like the moral, kind-hearted, clear- 
headed people who have learned the principles of true 

living? 

174 



THE DIFFICULTIES OF LIFE 175 

Those are not the best and most trusted citizens 
who began life in comfort, and sailed along on smooth 
seas all the way. Such do not know themselves or 
their powers of endurance. We have to face the rough 
winds and storms in order to appreciate the warmth 
of the mellow days, the calm of repose. Difficulty is 
development. We grow, and find that which is in 
us, by battling with obstacles. 

In practical life, difficulties are encountered every- 
where. 

It is not highest wisdom in friends to be continually 
making pleasant places for their favorites. The rough 
and thorny ways are for the bringing out of true men, 
real women. Out of the struggle is born greatness of 
mind —of intellect— of moral strength. We suffer 
much, it may be, while passing through difficult en- 
counters, but, passing them successfully, we feel our- 
selves growing firmer and stronger. Looking back- 
wards, we may often see how the difficulties have helped 
to a higher and better foothold. 

There is a story of a man walking one day in the 
town of Sydney, in Australia, he picked up a mass of 
rough stone as he supposed, or, at most, a piece of 
common quartz. He thought it possible, however, 
that there might be gold mixed in with it. So he 
took his hammer and broke the stone in fine pieces, 
washed and sifted all the particles and the result was, 
he found sixteen ounces of pure gold within the rough, 
coarse rock. Just so do difficulties and struggles with 
obstacle after obstacle, bring out the fine gold of char- 
acter, and, we learn what we are good for. 

We should not, then, shrink from difficulties, al- 
though it cannot be said that any would willingly court 



176 RIGHT LIVING 

them. But, since they must come, try to meet thern 
bravely, valiantly, as necessary lessons contributing 
to our well-being, a part of the discipline of life. 

"Though losses and crosses 
Be lessons right severe, 
There's wit there, you'll get there, 
You'll find no other where." 

Are you striving for some especial privilege, some 
great achievement? And does the way seem crowded 
with things adverse to your advancement? Try all 
the harder to overcome them. Are you in search of 
an education? You will be sure to get it by seeking 
earnestly. Think how many advantages are in your 
favor, instead of repining over the difficulties. Do 
you desire to make a clean way for yourself and for 
others who are to follow? 

How shall you begin? By first' being clean yourself 
and so continuing. 

It was the indomitable energy and fearlessness of 
General Grant that won for him success. Persistency, 
intention to surmount, to defy difficulties, will over- 
come them. And those very difficulties are necessary 
means of self-improvement. 

All progress in life, illustrated by thousands of in- 
stances, is born of pain, trial, difficulties. 

Nothing teaches better than example. 

Ben Johnson was a bricklayer, and worked, it is 
said, at the building of Lincoln's Inn with a trowel in 
his hand and a book in his pocket, in which he stud- 
ied every minute that he could snatch from his work. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe, when writing "Uncle Tom's 
Cabin," was burdened with domestic cares, and often 
was obliged to pause in the middle of a sentence to 
make the kitchen fire or to cook a beefsteak. 



THE DIFFICULTIES OF LIFE 177 

Why should you be careful to overcome difficulties? 

Because you will thus develop firmness, perseverance, 
and all good qualities that elevate and ennoble. 

You, yourself may become an example for others. 

You may be cited as a copy for those more timid, 
less hopeful. 

"Ah," you say, "all that I strive for, all that I 
meet and overcome, my strength, my good fortune, 
may all leave me in one moment of forgetfulness. " 

What then? Why, try again. The roots of success 
are still there. If they are scorched by the heat, or 
chilled by defeat, coax them to new life, and new 
strength, and press on again with renewed determi- 
nation. 

It is told that on a certain occasion, an ambassa- 
dor, whom the Emperor Charlemagne had sent to an 
eastern monarch, while sitting at the table of the lat- 
ter, quite thoughtlessly moved a dish that was near 
him. It happened that the king had issued an edict 
that if a guest touched a dish before himself was 
served, he should be put to death. Therefore, most 
naturally, every eye was turned toward the envoy, 
and, some of the courtiers proclaimed his offense and 
loudly demanded his immediate punishment. The 
monarch was in a dilemma. On the one hand he 
dreaded the displeasure of so mighty a ruler as Charle- 
magne, by putting his representative to death; on the 
other, he was unwilling that his subjects should find 
him remiss in the execution of any law which he had 
promulgated. Of the two alternatives, the latter seemed 
to him the worse; so he acquainted the ambassador 
with the law of the land and told him he must die. 

"I sinned ignorantly, " said the Frank, "but igno- 



178 RIGHT LIVING 

ranee of the law is no excuse for its violation. Your 
every decree must be carried out to the very letter, 
and I am the last who would wish you to relax from 
your vigor in my behalf. I only implore your High- 
ness to grant me a single favor before I die." 

"It is not my desire, but the law renders thy death 
necessary," replied the monarch, "and I promise to 
grant whatever thou askest. My word is fate." 

"I only ask," remarked the ambassador, looking 
around with a grim smile, "that the eyes of all who 
saw me touch the dish be placed in my hand. " Hear- 
ing this the courtiers gazed upon one another with 
fear and trembling. Even the king himself was dis- 
mayed, but the promise had been given and the sin- 
gular request must be complied with. So he said: "It 
shall be done." 

On inquiry, however, not one was to be found 
among the courtiers nor among the servants who was 
willing to acknowledge that he had witnessed the act; 
and the king confessed that he had not seen it. 

"If no one saw me commit the deed, there is no 
evidence to prove me guilty," observed the ambassa- 
dor, "and, certainly there can be no reason why I should 
suffer death." 

"Thou sayest wisely," returned the monarch, who 
was so delighted at the ambassador's shrewdness and 
cunning in getting out of the difficulty, that he not 
only pardoned him, but bestowed upon him many pres- 
ents of exceeding value. 

There was never a difficulty that had not a path 
leading out of it. 



XXXIX. 

TEMPTATION, THE DEMON ON THE HIGHWAY. 

Keep virtue's simple truth before your eyes, 

Nor think from evil good can ever rise, Thompson. 

Temptations are all along the pathway of life. 
Voices of tempters, in musical tones proffering the 
cup of illicit pleasure* meet one at almost every step. 
"Come this way, " "Here you will find comfort," "This 
way leads you to power," "Here is wealth, place, lux- 
ury." These are some of the calls of the tempter. 

With music and banners, with smiles and beauty,with 
every attractive quality to lure, strive the emissaries 
of temptation, ready with every device to catch the 
unwary and innocent. 

It is extremely difficult for some to get through life 
without entanglement in some one of the many entranc- 
ing and enticing elements of the tempters. Once 
falling into the toils of these wily deceivers, it is hard 
to regain the high estate of true manhood and lofty 
womanhood. 

It is easy to fall, and easier still to sink lower, after 
taking the first downward step. It is harder to re- 
trace the steps. 

We are two-fold in our nature. The higher intel- 
lectual nature of man, with superior power over all 
animal passions and tastes, makes him a tower of 
strength, a fort of moral defense against all that would 

injure or destroy. 

179 



i So RIGHT LIVING 

The baser or lower passions of man,, uncontrolled, 
are the cruel demons of his existence. The dual nat- 
ures are each important, each natural and beautiful, 
but, the higher, the intellectual, must be dominant, 
must rule, if man would be wise and happy. Here 
comes in, most aptly, the power of habit. 

Accustom yourself to resistance of evil, to be gov- 
erned by reason and good judgment, and you are safe. 

It is usually in the first struggle, that safety, or 
ruin, lies. When temptation comes in any form, say 
NO in the largest of capitals and stick to it. Doing 
this, you have at once become a king, a ruler over a 
kingdom. 

You can meet the next tempter with the power and 
dignity of a king. 

It may be asked, Why not yield to temptation once 
in a while? Because there is always danger in even 
one transgression and that the slightest. Because, 
although you may feel strong enough, yourself, you 
set a dangerous example for a weaker brother, who may 
not be aware of his own weakness. 

Because moral nature is debased by the smallest in- 
clination to wrong. Because you feel ashamed of your 
yielding to temptation, and this tells you at once you 
have done an injustice to yourself, humiliated your 
high moral nature. 

Because the community wants men and women who 
are above temptation of any sort, and you are to 
take your place in the world as a man, as a woman. 
Because temptations, indulged, are costly, and your 
money is needed for higher, better, more useful pur- 
poses. 

But, you say, suppose you are not possessed of 



TEMPTATION 181 

money, and something comes across your path, where- 
by you may make a large sum of money, although not 
in an honorable way, or, by a just method — shall you 
run the chances at the risk of lowering your manhood? 
Never. A good conscience is better than all the 
wealth in the world. 

Soon after his establishment in Philadelphia. Frank- 
lin was offered an article for publication in his paper. 
Being very busy he begged the gentleman to leave it 
for consideration,, The next day the author called, 
and asked his opinion of it. "Why, sir," replied 
Franklin, "I am sorry to say I think it highly scur- 
rilous and defamatory. But, being at a loss on ac- 
count of my povery, whether to reject it or not, 1 
thought I would put it to this issue: at night when 
my work was done, I bought a two-penny loaf, on 
which I supped heartily, and then, wrapping myself 
in my great coat, slept very soundly on the floor till 
morning, when another loaf and mug of water afforded 
a pleasant breakfast. Now, sir, since I can live very 
comfortably in this manner, why should I prostitute 
my press to personal hatred or party passion for a 
more luxurious living?" 

One cannot read this anecdote of our American sage 
without thinking of Socrates' reply to King i\rchelaus, 
who had pressed him to give up preaching in the dirty 
streets of Athens, and come and live with him in his 
splendid court. "Meal, please your Majesty," said 
Socrates, "is a half-penny a peck at Athens, and water 
I get for nothing." 

What sublime examples these men furnish! A crust 
of bread and a clear conscience, to them, were superior 
to all temptations of wealth, ease and bodily comfort. 



i82 RIGHT LIVING 

Yet, should we have charity for those who, having 
less firmness and stability of character, fall into evil 
ways. We are not all strong, like Franklin or Soc- 
rates, but we can all try to be strong, and the victory 
is always to him that overcometh. 

Whatever temptations others fall into, we may never, 
perhaps, know, how hard they tried to resist wrong, 
nor how much they did refrain from. It is possible 
that if we knew all that is brought to bear upon those 
who fall, and all that they do overcome, we should 
feel to give them the meed of praise for much virtue 
and self command. 

But we are never to relax watch over ourselves, to 
see that we fall not into the power of the tempter. 

It is for us to make our standard of daily conduct 
high. 

Our colors of resistance to temptation must be 
nailed to every peak and pinnacle of our moral nature, 
that all may ses and know just what we mean to do; 
then the temptations of life, like evil shadows,will flee 
away into darkness. 

There is no tyrant and enslaver like the tempters 
that lurk in every city, town and hamlet, in every 
highway and byway of life. 

They are the Neros to be shunned and dreaded as 
the fatal epidemic, or the sting of the adder. 

"Real glory 
Springs from the silent conquest of ourselves, 
And without that, the conqueror is nought 
But the first slave." 

A parable. — A huntsman walked with his son in the 
fields; a deep brook separated them. The boy wanted 
to pass over to his father, but he could not for the 



TEMPTATION 183 

brook was wide. Immediately he cut a branch from 
the next bush, put the stick into the brook, leaned 
upon it and gave a great leap. But, behold! it was 
the branch of an elder tree; and as the boy was fling- 
ing himself over the brook, the stick broke and the 
waves splashed and foamed over his head. 

A shepherd, who saw this from a distance, ran up 
raising a loud cry; the boy, however, blew the water 
from his mouth and swam, laughing, to the other side. 
Then, the shepherd said to the huntsman : "You seem 
to have taught your son many things ; but, one thing 
you have forgotten. Why did you not accustom him 
to investigate the interior before he opens his heart 
to confidence? If he had examined the soft pith of 
the tree, he would not have relied on the deceiving 
bark." 

"My friend," answered the huntsman, "I have taught 
him to use his eyes and his strength; thus I may leave 
him to experience. Time will teach him suspicion; 
but he will manfully withstand temptation, for his 
eye is keen and his strength is tried 

We should bear in mind the fact that, yielding to. 
temptation, wrong-doing, brings its own punishment. 

You cannot escape the penalty of wrong actions. 

You cannot pass by it. 

No one can suffer for you, though they may suffer 
on your account. 

Avoid temptation, fall not into its snares and thus 
avoid pain and suffering. 



XL. 

HABIT, SECOND NATURE. 

How use doth breed a habit in a man. Shakespeare. 

Habit is sometimes called second nature. Repetition 
makes habit. We become familiar with art by the 
frequent performance of acts relating to art. The 
skilled artisan is so because of doing over and over, 
and -over again, the same thing. At length, the habit 
of doing work well is so fixed and firm, that he could 
hardly do it ill, if he tried. The face is washed every 
morning from long years of habit, so that, on rising, 
if this duty is neglected, one feels uneasy and he can- 
not readily take up any work till the ablution is first 
attended to. 

We practice music lessons until the habit is so fixed 
that, at the appointed hour we go to the piano almost 
involuntarily. We exercise the vocal organs until we 
come to sing without special effort. We arise at a 
certain hour in the morning, and finally, it makes us 
unhappy if we do not get up immediately when the 
clock strikes the certain hour. 

Thus it may be seen how easily and unconsciously, 
habit may become our ruler. 

How important then, that habits formed when young 
be correct, and firmly based upon right principles. 

Good habits, habits of industry, thrift, carefulness, 
184 



HABIT, SECOND NATURE 185 

habits of thinking in pure channels, once fixed, gen- 
erally remain permanent. 

Bad habits, loose ways of thinking, habits of waste- 
fulness, indolence, become just as firmly fixed as good 
habits. 

How absolutely important, then, that we start with 
good habits, instead of bad ones, if we expect to get 
on well in life; for, habits, good or bad, constitute 
character and conduct. 

What is meant when we speak of a person as one 
of good habits? 

The idea intended to be conveyed is, that the per- 
son is moral, is just, true and fair in his ways of liv- 
ing — that the conduct of his life tends to create hap- 
piness and agreeable conditions. 

He has attained this by long continuance in correct 
habits of thinking and acting. 

The same in regard to a person, of whom it is said, 
he is a man, or a boy, of bad habits. This one has 
repeatedly behaved badly, done wrong acts, and makes 
people about him ill at ease; his friends are often 
pained by his conduct and he brings a moral poison 
into the atmosphere of his surroundings. Bad habits 
are simply the repetition of bad actions, like lying, 
stealing, cursing, gambling, keeping vicious company; 
while good habits are the reverse of these actions. 

We cannot be too watchful of ourselves in the for- 
mation of habits, since they fix themselves imper- 
ceptibly upon us, and, in fact, become a part of us, 
before we are aware. It is told of a lawyer who had 
formed a habit of always holding a key in his hand, 
while arguing before a jury, that, some one removed 
the key once, unbeknown to him. He was just about 



i86 RIGHT LIV1XG 

to open his plea for the plaintiff. He commenced his 
argument and began a search for his key at the same 
time. He searched his pockets carefully, looked a- 
mong the papers upon his desk, but could not find 
it. He hesitated in his speech, finally became discon- 
certed, lost the thread of his argument, and was obliged 
to sit down, without accomplishing anything. Had 
he found his key, all would have gone on splendidly. 

Good habits are based upon good morals. 

A lad starting out in life with a clear foundation 
of good habits, may feel assured of success in his un- 
dertakings. 

Good habits are the invincible barriers that resist 
the breakers of temptation, and destroy the snares 
that are set for the unthinking. 

The conscience is strengthened, or weakened, by 
habits of thought. 

A child under ten years is very much in the power 
of its teachers and guardians, as to the formation of 
habits or ways of thinking. It is highly necessary, 
as any one may see, that the exact truth be given, the 
highest principles engrafted upon the tender mind, 
that no false impression be placed there to be un- 
learned at some future date, perhaps with shame and 
grief. 

A gentleman once asked his friend how he should 
train up his son in the way he should go. "By going 
that way yourself," was the reply. 

This shows that we fall into habits by observing 
the habits of others. 

Dr. Thompson in his book, tells a pretty story of 
once when he was climbing a steep mountain and was 
nearly to the top, carefully creeping along over precip- 



HABIT, SECOND NATURE 1S7 

itous and projecting rocks. All at once he heard far 
below, a sweet, silvery voice — "Take the safe path, 
father; I'm coming after you." His heart stood still 
as he realized the danger of his precious child. In the 
same way boys are coming right along after their 
parents and teachers, taking on habits similar to 
theirs, and following in their footsteps. 

The wise will take the safe path, always. 

One who does not wish to see his son smoke cigars, 
drink liquor and the like, will carefully avoid those 
habits, himself. 

A bad habit is dangerous and hurtful. The injury 
of a bad habit cannot be calculated. 

The Duke of Orleans was the oldest son of King 
Louis Phillippe, and inheritor of whatever rights his 
father could transmit. He was a kind hearted young 
man and universally popular. But he had one bad 
habit. He was fond of wine-drinking. One morning 
he invited a few of his companions to breakfast, as he 
was about to depart from Paris to join his regiment. 
In the conviviality of the hour he drank too much 
wine. He did not become intoxicated; he was not in 
any respect, a dissipated man; his character was lofty 
and noble; but, in that jo} T ous hour, he drank just one 
glass too much. 

In taking the parting glass he partly lost the balance 
of his body and mind. Bidding adieu to his compan- 
ions he entered his carriage; but for the one glass of 
wine he would have kept his seat. He leaped from 
his carriage; but for the one glass of wine he would 
have alighted on his feet. His head struck the pave- 
ment. Senseless and bleeding, he was taken into a 
beer-shop near by, and died. The extra glass of wine 



1 88 RIGHT LIVING 

overthrew the Orleans dynasty, confiscated their 
property of $100,000,000, and sent the whole family 
into exile. 

Will you not be careful how you form bad habits? 

But can not a bad habit be changed? Certainly. 

Yet, it is hard to effect such a change, especially 
when one is past youth. 

There is but one way to abandon bad habits, as 
there is but one to acquire tuem, and that is told in 
one word — practice. 

Honestly try, and try hard, and the habit will finally 
be overcome. If there is anything you do, that you 
are convinced is wrong and demoralizing, turn from it 
instantly. 

Said Epictetus, "Wouldst thou be no longer of a 
wrathful temper? Then do not nourish the aptness to 
it, give it nothing that will increase it, be tranquil 
from the outset, and number the days when thou hast 
not been wrathful. The aptness is first enfeebled, 
then destroyed. And you can say, 'To-day I was not 
vexed, nor yesterday, nor for two or three months 
past ; but I was heedful when anything happened to 
move me thus.' Know then, that thou art in good 
case. But if thou hast been once defeated, and fallen 
into the bad habit again, you make a new resolve, 
and say The next time I will conquer. You must con- 
quer now,. this time, and, by never relaxing this in- 
dustrious heeding you will rid yourself of, at least, a 
few of your faults." 

Power of habit cannot be over-estimated. A Rus- 
sian writer has said — "Habits (good) are a necklace 
of pearls; untie the knot and the whole unthreads." 

Some one has asked why it is that the sons of rich 



HABIT, SECOND NATURE i8g 

men do not turn out so well as their fathers. One 
great reason is because they are less careful as to the 
formation of good habits. They have greater means 
of indulgence and these means operate to their ruin. 

A worthy Scotch couple when asked how their son 
had broken down so early in life, gave the following 
explanation : 

"When we began life together we worked hard, and 
lived upon porridge and such like, gradually adding 
to our comfort as our means improved, until we were 
able to dine off a bit of roast meat and sometimes a 
boilt chuckie (fowl) ; but, as for Jock, our son, he 
began where we had left off — he began wV the chuckie 
first. " 

Good habits make good life. Good life is the prize 
of all true living. 

Those countries are the best to live in, that contain 
the greater number of orderly, well-behaved, self-re- 
specting men and women; men and women whose 
habits, whose ways of thinking are above reproach. 



XLL 

POWER OF WILL. 

I can because I will. Napoleon Bonaparte, 

Three roots bear up dominion: Knowledge, Will, — 
These twain are strong, but stronger yet the third, — 

Obedience — 'tis the great tap root that still 
Knit round the rock of duty, is not stirred, 

Though heaven-loosed tempests spend their utmost skill. 

Lowell. 

The will is an admirable quality. The strong-willed 
are those who make strong points, either for good or 
ill. It is common to some to say that the will must 
be broken in childhood — much as one would break a 
colt to the harness — that there is little good in the 
person unless the will is subdued by force. 

In olden times it was regarded as a holy obligation 
to break the will of a child. Now let us see about 
this will — what is it? 

Would you not say it is that faculty that enables 
one to act for himself? Behind the will lie motives, 
and the will is active, for good or evil, according to 
the motive back of it. 

One who possesses a strong will, if guided by cor- 
rect motives, will do good acts; but, the weak-willed 
person will be forever getting into trouble, although 
he may be fully aware of the right, but not having 
sufficient strength of will, he will yield a little here 
190 



POWER OF WILL 191 

and more there, against his better judgment, often- 
times. 

Is there anything more pitiful than a child, or a 
man, devoid of a will of his own? Is not such a char- 
acter like a ship at sea without a rudder, without a 
compass, whiffling about with any breeze that blows? 

The drift and drivel of humanity may be found com- 
posed largely of men and women who have no force 
of will. 

They cannot be depended upon, and the world has 
little use for such. No greater calamity could hap- 
pen to a high minded, aspiring youth than to extin- 
guish his will-power. 

Parents often complain of wilful children, when, if 
they would look within themselves the cause would be 
apparent. 

Dr. Crane, who was once principal of a New Jersey 
Conference Seminary, tells this story about a man who 
came to place his son in the institution. When he 
was about to depart, and had got as far as the door, 
he stopped to make a final remark. 

Said he, "'You will find John truthful, obedient and 
affectionate. He is a good boy in general, but,' (here 
he assumed a stern look, and spoke in a stern tone) 
'he has one very bad habit. He has learned to smoke, 
and,' (more sternly) 'I want you to break him of it, if 
you have to break his neck!' 

"And then, taking off his hat, he drew a cigar from 
the lining, put it in his mouth, and said: 

'"John, go and get me a match.' 

"Of course I could only let 'expressive silence' sig- 
nify my sense of the important duty I was expected to 
undertake; but, I inwardly determined that if John's 



192 RIGHT LIVING 

neck was to be broken for following his father's ex- 
ample, the father himself must do the deed. I will 
not affirm that cases of gross inconsistency like this 
are numerous; but who will say that they are few?" 

"Oh, but children are so bad — they must be broken 
of their will or they will not amount to anything," 
says one. 

No, no. The will must be governed by reason^ 
trained by habit, not broken. 

Slaves are made of those who have broken, or feeble 
wills. We want no slaves among us. He who has 
no will is an imbecile. He who has only a feeble one 
is not much better. He cannot say No, but, the strong- 
willed can say it and stick to it. It is will-power, 
strength of purpose that is needed. But should a child 
be left to go as he pleases, simply because his will is 
not to be disturbed? Of course not. 

The truth should be presented in a clear light, and 
reason will show the right way to go and when to stop. 

Wilfulness reduced to obstinacy is wrong, so also 
is indulgence of will to the hurt of parent, teacher or 
friend. 

These three wish us no ill. We owe to them kind- 
ness, respect and gratitude for all they have done, and 
are constantly doing for us. Their experience and 
judgment are superior to ours, hence, it is right and 
proper to yield to them. Compliance with their wishes 
and requests should be given cheerfully. The kind 
parent, teacher, or friend, will never exact anything 
from a child that is not right for him to give. 

Obedience is written upon all things. 

In order to enjoy good health we must obey the 
health laws. 



POWER OF WILL 



193 



If we would be well morally, we must obey the 
moral laws. 

No parent, no teacher, has any right to be cruel, 
harsh and domineering toward a child, or to ask him 
to do that which is wrong or improper. 

Children are sometimes made to do wrong by force, 
but any child has a right to protest against such im- 
moral treatment. 

Teachers and parents, after showing the reason for 
obedience have a right to expect it. 

To indulge the will to the injury of any one, is 
wicked. If it is seen that the will is likely to lead us 
astray, unless curbed, we shall, of course, try all ways 
to restrain it. If we do not, we can readily see it will 
result in pain and trouble to ourselves and to those 
we dearly love. 

Do tasks seem hard, lessons onerous labor? 

Do not hold back but put heart, mind, and all the 
force of the will into the work. 

A strong will accomplishes all things that are need- 
ful. 

Force, application, brings around all good results 
striven for. 

The growth of mind and all progress is due largely, 
if not entirely, to determination, to the activity of the 
will. 

It is told of a young French officer that he used to 
say, "I will be Marshal of France and a great Gen- 
eral." 

He did become a distinguished commander, and 
he died a Marshal of France. Aim high, and then, 
determine to reach the mark. 

The story is told of a carpenter who was noticed 



194 RIGHT LIVING 

one day planing very carefully the bench of a mag- 
istrate which had been brought to him to repair. "Why 
do you take so much pains with it?" he was asked. 
"Because, " answered the carpenter, "I wish to make 
it easy against the time when I come to sit upon it 
myself!" And sure enough, the man lived to become 
a magistrate and sit upon the very same bench. 

If you will to become great and good, noble and 
true, and to this end all should live, because reason 
and observation, tell us this is best for all, then you 
may become so, by directing every effort to such pur- 
pose. Napoleon said, "Impossible is a word only to 
be found in the dictionary of fools." 

Then, cultivate the will, but always in the right di- 
rection, that good may follow after. 

Suwarrow said — "I don't know," and, "I can't," 
should be banished. In their places he would substi- 
tute "Learn! Do! Try!" 

WHAT CAN BE DONE. 

Many years ago in a country town in Massachusetts 
a teacher saw a boy come into his school, whom he 
knew to be one of the worst boys in town. He deter- 
mined, if he could, to make a good boy of him. He 
did not begin by beating him, but spoke kindly and 
treated him as a gentleman. The boy behaved well 
that day. The next morning the prudential committee, 
as he was called, came into the school and said to the 
teacher: "Mr. Towne, I hear that bad fellow, Marcy, 
has come to your school. Turn him out at once! He 
will spoil the rest of the boys." 

"No, sir," replied the teacher, "I will leave the school 
if you say so, but I cannot expel a boy so long as he 
behaves well." 



POWER OF WILL 195 

So he kept the "bad boy, " encouraged him, confided 
in him, talked to him, until Bill Marcy became one 
of the best boys in the school. In the war of 1812 
Marcy was one of the bravest soldiers; he captured 
the first prisoners taken on land and the first stand' 
ard that was surrendered, he received. He became an 
editor, a judge, a governor of New York, a United 
States Senator, Secretary of War under President 
Polk, and Secretary of State under President Pierce. 
He was a man of great ability, and whenever he vis- 
ited the "Old Bay State," the distinguished writer, 
statesman and diplomatist, never failed to visit his 
old teacher, Salem Towne, and always thanked him 
for having been the means of directing his strong will 
into good channels and making, thus, a man of him. 

The human will is influenced by motives. 

Strongest motives make the acts that compose life. 

When the will is strengthened by motives of truth- 
fulness, lying will cease. 

When motives of honesty are made strong enough, 
people will be honest, not alone because it is "policy" 
to be so, but because it is right to be honest, and 
no one has any business to be dishonest. 



XLII. 

COURAGE, A NECESSITY TO RIGHT LIVING. 

The valiant never taste of death but once. Shakespeare. 

All admire courage. It is the fine quality that wins 
homage and appreciation. The word virtus among 
the Romans meant courage, and they used the word 
also, in a moral sense. Courage is an inspiration — a 
builder of high character. 

It is a delight to listen to tales of valor, to exploits 
of the brave on the field of battle. The recital of he- 
roic achievements kindles enthusiasm and delight. 

All histories of brave deeds awaken admiration, and> 
with some hasty, reckless boys, they have served to 
impress so deeply as to awaken a strong desire to go 
and do likewise. 

And there are those, who, after reading stories of 
life on the frontier, have actually started to go out 
and fight Indians. These Indian stories were written 
simply for effect, many of them, and the boys who were 
led away by them, have been glad to get back under 
their father's roof. 

It is better not to read the highly colored sensational 
literature that is written only to lure and excite. 

Aside from these stories of hair-breadth escapes, 
there are many real deeds of valor that are worthy of 
emulation, should occasion demand. 

The courage of Arnold Winklereid, a Swiss patriot, 
190 



COURAGE 197 

is sublime, and will always hold attention whenever 
recited. Although he lived five hundred years ago, 
his story cannot be read to-day without a thrill. The 
great Austrian army was pitted against thirteen hun- 
dred Swiss soldiers who had attempted to penetrate 
the enemy's lines but had fallen back in almost dis- 
may and despair. Winklereid, perceiving the condi- 
tion of things, with marvelous courage, grasped the 
Austrian pikes within reach, buried them in his body 
and bore them to the earth. "Make way for liberty!" 
he cried as he fell. The act inspired his comrades, 
who rushed into the space and fought till they de- 
feated and overcame the Austrians, and made Switzer- 
land free. 

That was lofty heroism. It was physical courage. 

There is another kind of courage that belongs to the 
moral nature. 

It has been shown in many instances in the past, 
where persons have suffered death by most cruel tort- 
ures rather than to renounce their honest convictions. 

Moral courage is a great virtue. 

What is moral courage?" 

It is to be so strongly entrenched in truth, right- 
eousness, honor, as to be able to withstand any, and 
every temptation. 

It is to be able to stand up bravely and say, I have 
too much respect for myself to yield to that, which I 
know is wrong, which will, though agreeable and sweet 
to-day, bring me sorrow, to-morrow. 

It is a fine quality to possess, a noble courage, when 
insulted, called a coward and other viler names, to 
keep cool and refrain from words of the same import. 

Once, when the colored President of Hayti (Mr. 



1 98 RIGHT LIVING 

Boyer) was staying at a hotel in New York City, he 
went one day to dinner, accompanied by some of the 
other boarders in the hotel. One of the guests, an ig- 
norant, boorish fellow, thinking to show his importance, 
jumped up from the table and left the hall, exclaim- 
ing in a loud and angry tone, accompanied by an 
oath — "I'll not eat with a nigger!" 

All the rest of the company indignantly protested 
against the wanton insult, upon which, Mr. Boyer, 
calmly rising, said in a dignified and gentle manner : 
"Gentlemen, I thank you for your generous defense of 
myself, but, please remember this: insults I write upon 
the sand, but benefits upon marble." 

This was genuine philosophy, a high moral courage. 

It is related of Thomas Jefferson, that, upon one oc- 
casion, a man addressed him with great rudeness. 
One, who stood near, observing that Mr. Jefferson 
made no reply, said, "Why, sir, how can you stand 
there so calmly and bear the insults of that man? Why 
do you permit him to speak so to you?" "Insult me!" 
said Jefferson, calmly, "Insult me! A gentleman 
won't and a blackguard "can't!" 

It requires a good deal of moral heroism to bear in- 
sults calmly, and, especially, in the presence of others; 
sometimes it calls for more real bravery than to fight 
a battle, or, to lead armies on the battlefield. 

The villain and the assassin are not brave men. 
Their courage, usually, is the result of stimulants, 
and their work is done stealthily and under cover of 
darkness. 

Genuine courage is that combination of physical 
bravery and mental strength that is prepared for any 
ill that may arise, and is not afraid to do right in 
spite of any consequence that may follow. 



COURAGE 199 

There is a courage that comes into action in every 
day life, that is ready to meet any emergency and rise 
above it. 

There is a story told of Robert Emmett in early 
life that proved his courage and resolution. He was 
fond of studying chemistry. One night at a late hour, 
when all the family were in bed, he swallowed a quan- 
tity of corrosive sublimate in mistake for some cool- 
ing, acid powder. He immediately discovered his 
mistake and knew that death must shortly ensue un- 
less he instantly swallowed the only antidote — chalk. 
Timid men would have torn at the bell, aroused the 
family and sent for a stomach-pump. Emmett called 
no one, made no noise; but, going quietly downstairs, 
and unlocking the front door, he proceeded to the 
stable, scraped some chalk he knew to be there, and 
took sufficient doses of it to neutralize the poison. 

We should seek to cultivate courage, as one of the 
great helps to right living. 

When the enticing and bewitching fascinations ap- 
proach in all sorts of guises and disguises, to charm 
and bewilder, it is grand and heroic to be able to see 
them as they are, and to hurl them from you with the 
strength of a moral giant. It is noble to be able to 
say, "I can withstand you all. Call me a coward if 
you will, but nothing shall turn me from the right." 

Many are too diffident, although knowing well the 
right, to do it. 

A company of three or four young men are together. 
All at once one of the number produces a bottle of 
wine, and passes it around. Who is the real hero of 
the company? It is he, who, in spite of ridicule and 
laughter, declines to touch a drop of the liquid. He 



2oo RIGHT LIVING 

is the bravest young gentleman, the one most worthy 
of honor. 

There are many real heroes whose names are never 
known to fame, heroes, because resisting the impulse, 
or invitation to evil, they have stood, like a rock, alone 
amid the breakers of sin and temptation. 

Moral courage enables us to bear without outward 
emotion, all slights, pains, sneers and hurts. 

To forbear to speak harsh words when most in- 
clined, to cease from acting when most provoked, to 
be calm and patient when everything about us is tur- 
bulent, is indeed greatness. 

The greatest courage is required to fight our pas- 
sions, and the greatest victory is that obtained over 
them. We should strive for courage to be truthful, 
honorable, and to pay our honest debts — courage to 
be silent when we have nothing to say — courage to 
wear old clothes when we cannot afford new ones — 
courage to do any honest work and not be ashamed of 
it — courage to speak our mind when occasion requires, 
and to turn from the society of the unprincipled and 
depraved. Above all, we should strive for that cour- 
age that enables one to do right on all occasions, and 
under all circumstances. 



XLIII. 

IN REGARD TO CONCEALED VICE. 

Vice is a monster of so frightful mein, 

As to be hated needs but to be seen. Pope. 

That which is done in secret finally becomes an open 
proclamation that all who see may read. The human 
countenance is a reflector showing the result of every 
passion, every appetite, every thought, even. Vices 
cannot be concealed. 

When vice is entertained by the mind, its visiting 
card is left upon the face. 

That which you would be ashamed to have your 
parents or friends know, which would cause a blush 
to tell your friend, whatever it may be, that is the one 
evil you must fight. 

The vice that comes noiselessly, with slippered feet 
and stealthy tread, like a thief in the night, is the one 
of which you must beware. 

Its mission is to steal your best thoughts, and re_ 
place them with low, groveling and sensual ones; to 
take away your good health and give you disease in 
its place, to crash your sense of manliness, and high 
nobility of character; to finally sink the abode of the 
mind, and overthrow all that makes life worth the liv- 
ing. It tends to inanity and insanity, and a great city 
in ruins is not so sad a sight as a human mind over 

thrown by lunacy. 

201 



202 RIGHT LIVING 

Would you think it right to entertain so foul a fiend, 
so cruel a foe? — one that brings weakness instead of 
strength, that essays to make of you instead of a man, 
a maniac, a drivelling idiot? that strikes down your 
noblest aspirations, beats and breaks the best treas- 
ures of the human mind? that builds a fierce fire which 
burns into the very soul and destroys all before it? 
that writes with flaming pen, the letters, moral degra- 
dation all over the fair fabric of mind and body? 

Your own good sense tells you no, a thousand times, 
and always no. 

In ancient Rome, when a native trader was detected 
in an attempt to knowingly transgress the laws of his 
country, he was dragged to the forum, and there, with 
a placard upon his breast, describing the nature of 
his offense, exposed to the public gaze for a period of 
twenty days. 

To transgress the laws of being, to undermine hap- 
piness and fling it to the winds, is a far greater sin, 
which is accompanied by its own placard and the same 
is exposed to the gaze of the world of human eyes. 

Every person is entitled to know the laws of his 
being and the functions thereof. 

Ignorance of these makes sad havoc, and is respon- 
sible lor much crime and wrong-doing. 

It is injustice to children, a wrong to the nation, 
to withhold useful knowledge of the laws that govern 
the human body, whose every physiological function 
should be held sacred. 

Holier than any temple of wood or stone is the 
house we inhabit, this structure composed of bone, 
flesh, muscle, tissue, nerve and blood. 

The mind within is an exquisite gem, a pearl be- 
yond all price. It is the ruler of the body. 



IN REGARD TO CONCEALED VICE 203 

Its influence is beyond all that words can tell. 

How important then, that it should be kept free 
from taint of unworthy, or degrading thoughts and 
acts. 

There is afloat in life, much doubtful philosophy, 
much injurious teaching, in respect to the uses of the 
temple in which we live. The great hurt comes when 
children learn that which they are afraid to talk freely 
upon, with parent and teacher. This is the door ajar, 
that leads to the dark abode of vice, where good prin- 
ciples, virtuous precepts are lost amid bewildering 
confusion and shameful actions. 

The close confidence that ought to exist between 
parent and child should never be broken. If there 
come hints of vice and wrong, go at once to your par- 
ent, your teacher, or your best friend, and seek coun- 
sel and instruction. Thus will you be saved many 
hours of pain and dismay, spared years of shame, 
disease and, perhaps, lunacy. 

Let not the word slave be written on your brow. 

Let no debasing passion, no low appetite press you 
to the ground. 

Stand erect. 

Put beneath your feet all that would harm and de- 
grade. Let Intellect, shining in its own golden glory, 
say, emphatically, "Over my animal nature, over all 
these powerful forces of being, I alone am Emperor." 
Yield not an inch, Be master of yourself. 

TWO PICTURES. 

Once in Rome there lived a great artist, who often 
noticed, playing in the street beneath his window, a 
child of exquisite beauty. The face was that of a 
cherub, the eyes of the deep blue of the violet, and 



2o 4 RIGHT LIVING 

the Lair clustered in golden ringlets all around this 
sweet and lovely face. The expression of the coun- 
tenance was mild and gentle, and held the attention 
of every passer-by. 

The artist painted this beautiful face and hung the 
picture in his studio where all might come and ad- 
mire its pure innocence and loveliness. 

In his saddest hours that gentle face looked down 
upon him like an angel of light. He thought its purity 
and angelic beauty symbolized heaven. "If ever I 
find," he said, "a perfect contrast to this beauteous 
face, I will paint that, also, and hang it upon the 
opposite wall, and the one I shall call 'heaven' and 
the other 'hell.'" 

Years passed. At length in another part of Italy, 
in a prison that he visited, looking through the grated 
door of a cell, he saw the most hideous object that 
ever met his sight — a fierce, haggard fiend, with glar- 
ing eyes and features deeply marked with the lines 
of lust and crime. The artist remembered the prom- 
ise he had made himself, and immediately painted the 
picture of this loathesome culprit to hang over against 
the portrait of the lovely boy. 

The contrast was perfect; the two poles of the moral 
universe were before him. Then, the mystery of the 
human soul gained another illustration. 

He had two pictures, but they were likenesses of 
one and the same person. To his great surprise, on 
inquiry into the history of this degraded and revolting 
creature, he learned that he was no other than the 
sweet-faced, golden-haired child whom he once knew 
so well, and saw so often playing in the streets of 
Rome! 



IN REGARD TO CONCEALED VICE 205 

Too great stress cannnot be laid upon the importance ' 
of moral training and physiological instruction if we 
would have strong men and women, instead of igno- 
rant and feeble imbeciles. The prevalence of vices 
that destroy health, hope and energy, is alarming. 
The facts cannot, should not be hidden. They tell 
their own story, writing it indelibly upon the counte- 
nances of the victims of vice, as well as upon society. 
To be forewarned is to be forearmed. "Know thyself" 
should be written over every door of every school and 
college in the land. 

Every one should reverence himself so much that 
he would scorn to bring a stain of dishonor or dis- 
grace upon body or mind. 

St. Chrysostom said — "The true Shekinah is man!" 
Degrade it not by a breath of shame, but honor, rev- 
erence, respect and protect its purity and nobility. 

From the depths of his consecrated soul spoke No- 
valis when he said: "There is but one Temple in the 
Universe and that is the Body of Man. Nothing is 
holier than that high form. Bending before men is 
a reverence done to this Revelation in the flesh. We 
touch heaven when we lay our hands on a human 
Body." 

Respect yourself too much to injure yourself. 

Honor your body too much to bring disgrace and 
shame upon it. " It is the house you live in. Keep 
it clean and pure. 



XLIV. 

BEAUTIFUL CHARITY. 

With malice toward none, with charity for all, A. Lincoln. 

Charity is one of the finest qualities of humanity. 

It makes a thornless path for ourselves and strews 
flowers along the highway for others. But what is 
charity? It is that charming disposition that sees 
in all human beings, even the most depraved, sparks 
and gleams of goodness, trust and truth. It is love, 
kindness, brotherly feeling. It is care and considera- 
tion in our judgment of others. 

It is the inclination to put the best possible con- 
struction upon the words and acts of others. 

Of faith, hope and charity, "the greatest of these is 
charity." 

In another consideration of the word it means to give 
alms, to bestow good things, upon the poor, to share 
our blessings with others. It is to the credit of 
humanity that we cannot look upon suffering without 
endeavoring to relieve it. This is simply doing as we 
would be done by, but, if each person did his whole 
duty and society and business were organized upon 
a different basis, there would be less need of charity or 
charitable institutions. 

It is because we have not yet progressed upward to 

the high ground of one great human f amity, because 

we have not yet learned the true art of living that 

these things remain with us. ^ 

206 



BE A UTIFUL CHARITY 207 

It is right to be benevolent and extend a helping 
hand to the needy and unfortunate, to assist the dis- 
tressed and aid the poor and destitute. 

Thus, we show we are human, and we feel better 
when we have done a good deed. 

Knowing that we have helped others, we feel that 
we are, ourselves helped. But the best charity is when 
we assist others to help themselves ; for example, 
one is willing to work, does not desire charity, but 
would like to earn that which he receives. When we 
give such a person a chance to earn something, we 
have done better than bestowing charity. 

One feels more of a man to earn the bread that he 
eats. It is because many are not educated in true 
morality and practiced in it, that they are reduced to 
ask for charity. 

Hence, may be seen the necessity for a comprehen- 
sive knowledge of the foundation stones of right living, 
— viz., — morals. All, at some time, in passing through 
this life, need the mantle of charity extended to them; 
and, it is the large mind that can bring charity for- 
ward on all occasions. 

We are so prone to blame others, to declare we 
would not do thus and so, were we in the place of an- 
other. 

The probability is we would, in the same situation, 
governed by the same impulses, do precisely the same 
thing. If we are constituted after a superior pattern, 
with greater self-command, all the more charity should 
we have for those who are naturally weaker. The en- 
vironments of some are better than others, the influ- 
ences and teaching they have received, fortifies them 
against wrong actions. For these reasons, they should 



2o8 RIGHT LIVING 

be slow to condemn those who have lacked these ad- 
vantages, or who had not good faculties to begin 
with. 

If our brother or sister goes astray while we labor 
to bring them back to better ways, let us, at the same 
time, be not harsh in our judgment, or censorious, but 
rather, let us exercise that large and beautiful charity, 
that kindness, that shall enable them to take heart and 
courage to try to regain the straight road to peace 
and happiness. 

It is a good principle to put ourselves in others 
places, and think, under like conditions, how we would 
feel, and what treatment we would like extended to us. 

We should look upon the shortcomings of others, not 
in angry condemnation, but, with sorrow and tender 
regret. 

We cannot know all the struggles, hesitation and 
temptation another has passed through, the feeble 
purpose, the desire to do right, and the weakness of 
the tempted; if we did, we would be slower to cen- 
sure, and quicker to draw the charitable inference, to 
drop the tear of pity. 

A woman known to be vile and wicked, lost by death 
a dearly loved daughter. At her grave she stood alone, 
with tears streaming down her cheeks. "I loved her," 
she said, "and I am so alone now — so forsaken." 

A noble, woman occupying a high position in society, 
refined and cultivated, stopped, and takingthe hand of 
the mourner in hers, said, "I too, have lost children. 
I sympathize with you." 

One great reason why we should exercise charity 
toward the faults of others, is because we are not fault- 
less ourselves. 



BEAUTIFUL CHARITY 209 

All are prone to err— all stand in need of the char 
ity that human beings can give to one another. 

Should we exercise charity toward our enemies, 
toward those who try all ways to hurt us? 

Yes, most decidedly. 

Thus enemies are destroyed. 

How? By being treated charitably and kindly, they 
become our friends, and are no longer enemies. 

We become larger and nobler ourselves, by the exer- 
cise of charitable feelings. Our higher human nature 
expands into more beautiful bloom and blossom, we 
grow better and stronger, truer men and truer women 
in this way, and if all would exercise this great hu- 
man characteristic, the world would be a better place 
to live in. Charity is kindness. 

THE THREE SONS. 

Nobility of soul chiefly consists in doing good to 
those who have injured us. A worthy man, full of 
years and wealth wished to divide his possessions be- 
tween his three sons in order that he might enjoy in 
his lifetime, the pleasure of seeing them prosperous 
and independent. After making an equal division of 
his property and giving to each his portion, he said, 
"There still remains in my possession a very valuable 
diamond. I intend it for him among you who will 
deserve it best, by performing some generous, noble 
action, within the next three months." 

The three sons departed, but met again at the end 
of the prescribed time. They presented themselves 
before their father and the eldest began, as follows: 

"Father, during my absence, a stranger found him- 
self so circumstanced as to be obliged to intrust all 



210 RIGHT LIVING 

his money into my keeping. He had no receipt from 
me, and could produce no proof, no security; never- 
theless, I faithfully restored the whole. Was not this 
praiseworthy?" 

"You only did your duty, my son," said the old 
man; "it would have been scandalous to do otherwise, 
for honesty is a duty, yours was an act of justice, not 
generosity." 

The second son in his turn related his story. "In my 
travels I came to the border of a lake. A child had 
just fallen into the water. I jumped in and rescued 
him before the eyes of the villagers, who will attest 
the truth of my statement." 

"That was well done," interrupted the father, "but 
it was simply an act of humanity." 

At length the younger brother began: "My father," 
said he, "I found my mortal enemy, who had wandered 
off the track during the night, asleep and unconscious 
on the edge of a precipice ; the least movement would 
have been fatal, as, on awakening, he must have tum- 
bled into the abyss. His life was in my hands. I 
took all proper precautions to awake him gently and 
drew him away from the danger." 

"Ah, my son," cried the father, embracing him 
tenderly, "without dispute, the ring belongs to you." 



XLV. 

FIDELITY, THE GIVER OF STRENGTH AND HONOR. 

This above all, — To thine own self be true; 
And it must follow as the night the day, 
Thou canst not then be false to any man. 

Shakespeare. 

Fidelity is faithfulness. Be faithful to every trust 
if you would prosper. In faithfulness success is hid- 
den. 

Fidelity is the great virtue holding its own in every 
condition in life. It wins respect at once, and always. 
A man true to his word, true to his trust, true to his 
principles, is the one most needed in all relations of 
life. 

A business man seeking a clerk, first asks, "Is he 
honest? Is he faithful? Can I rely upon him? Will 
he do the same in my absence as when I am present?" 

In the shop, in the house, everywhere, these ques- 
tions come up, and they all turn on one pivot — 
fidelity. 

It is not how much work one is capable, of doing, 
or how finely he can talk, or, from what family of dis- 
tinction he is; but, Is he faithful? Is he regardful of 
his word? Is he conscientious? 

Fidelity is a moral law, and obedience to its com- 
mands makes happiness. 

If there were no obligations within us to be faithful 
211 



212 RIGHT LIVING 

there would be an end to business, to science, to home, 
to school, to everything of value. 

Think of a community where there is no fidelity! 
It is not to be conceived of, even among savages or 
robbers. There is honor among thieves, it is said. 
How much more should there be honor among men 
and women, boys and girls, who know that thieving is 
the transgression of law, civil and moral, and that 
such transgression results, soon or late, in misery and 
unhappiness. But do not thieves know this fact, and 
yet keep on in their disgraceful career? Why is this? 
They have not learned, although perhaps well edu- 
cated in books, the morals of true living. They have 
thought, it may be, that they could do these things 
and repent of them, and this would make the matter 
all right. It is certainly well to repent of an act of 
injustice, but, better still it is to never do the act ; 
then there will be no cause for repentance or grief. 

Hence, fidelity is a duty we owe, not alone to our- 
selves, but to those with whom we mingle, in business 
or pleasure. 

Is it not sometimes trying, in working for another, 
to be heedful and true to all that is expected of us? 
For employers themselves are often peevish, fault- 
finding, provoking in speech or manner, disagreeable 
in many ways. 

But this is nothing to your discharge of duty — to 
your faithfulness. 

Temptation comes. You are not to falter. Fidelity 
to your trust is that which you have to remember al- 
ways. Is a large amount of money entrusted to your 
care? Guard it more carefully even, than if it were 
your own. 



FIDELITY 213 

An act of homage is expressed in reposing confidence 
in your integrity. To stand steady, faithful, true 
to your obligation, swerving neither to the right, nor 
to the left, is an honor and glory — it is the weaving 
of a chaplet more beautiful than gold or diamonds. 

An English farmer was one day working in his fields, 
when he observed a party of huntsmen boldly riding 
about his farm. He had one field that he was espec- 
ially anxious they should not ride over, as the crop 
was in a condition to be badly injured by the tramp 
of the horses and dogs. So he dispatched a farm boy 
to this field, telling him to shut the gate and then to 
keep watch over it, and on no account to suffer it to 
be opened. 

The boy went as he was bidden, but was scarcely 
at his post before the huntsmen came up, perempto- 
rily ordering the gate to be opened. 

This the boy declined to do, stating the orders he 
had received, and his determination not to disobey 
them. Threats and bribes were offered alike in vain. 

One after another came forward as spokesman but 
all with the same result; the boy remained immov- 
able in his determination not to open the gate. After 
awhile one of noble presence advanced, and said in 
commanding tones: 

"My boy, you do not know me. I am the Duke of 
Wellington, one not accustomed to be disobeyed, and 
I command you to open that gate, that I and my 
friends may pass through." 

The boy lifted his cap and stood uncovered before 
the man whom all England delighted to honor, and 
answered gently, but firmly: 

"I am sure the Duke of Wellington would not wish 



2i 4 RIGHT LIVING 

me to disobey orders. I must keep this gate shut, nor 
suffer any one to pass, but with my master's express 
permission." 

Greatly pleased, the sturdy old warrior lifted his 
own hat and said: "I honor the man or boy, who can 
neither be bribed, nor frightened, into doing wrong. 
With an army of such soldiers I could conquer, not 
only the French, but the world." And handing the 
boy a glittering sovereign, the old duke put spurs to 
his horse and galloped away. The farmer said when 
he heard the story: "Well done, my brave boy! You've 
done to-day what Napoleon could not do — you've kept 
out the Duke of Wellington!" 

One loses nothing by being faithful, but gains much. 

In school who is the loved, the successful scholar? 

At home, who is the one most relied on? Is it not 
the faithful, earnest, dutiful boy or girl? the faithful 
member of the family? It is easy to see then, that 
fidelity is something all should strive for, and be proud 
to possess. 

The conscientious glow of having done well is a 
satisfaction. To be faithful is to be an example, and 
he who is faithful over the smallest trust is worthy 
of the highest. 

The happy being is he, as Wordsworth sings, 

"Who comprehends his trust, and to the same 
Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim; 

And therefore does not sloop, nor lie in wait 
For wealth, or honor, or for worldly state; 
"Whom they must follow, on whose head must fall, 
Like showers of manna, if they come at all." 

Fidelity is the clasp that holds together the noble 
qualities of humanity. 

Nothing inPompeii is said to have attracted visitors 



FIDELITY 



215 



more than the spot where a soldier of old Rome dis- 
played a most heroic fidelity. The fatal day on which 
Vesuvius, at the foot of which the city stood, burst 
into an eruption that shook the earth, poured torrents 
of lava from its riven sides and discharged, amidst 
the noise of a hundred thunders, such clouds of ashes 
as filled the air, produced a darkness deeper than 
midnight, and struck such terror into all hearts that 
men thought, not only that the end of the world had 
come and all must die, but that the gods themselves 
were expiring — on that night a sentinel kept watch 
by the gate which looked to the burning mountain. 
Amidst unimaginable confusion and shrieks of terror, 
mingled with the roar of the volcano and cries of 
mothers who had lost their children in the darkness, 
the inhabitants fled the fatal town, while falling ashes 
loaded the darkened air, and, penetrating every place, 
rose in the streets till they covered the house roofs 
nor left a vestige of the city, but a vast, silent mound, 
beneath which it lay unknown, dead and buried, for 
nearly one thousand, seven hundred years. 

Amidst this fearful disorder the sentinel at the gate 
had been forgotten; and, as Rome required her senti- 
nels, happen what might, to hold their posts till re- 
lieved by the guard, or set at liberty by their officers, 
he had to choose between death and dishonor. A 
pattern of fidelity he stood by his post. Slowly but 
surely the ashes rise on his manly form; now they reach 
his breast and now, covering his lips, they choke his 
breathing. He also was "faithful unto death." 

After seventeen centuries they found his skeleton 
standing erect in a marble niche, clad in rusted ar- 
mor, the helmet on his empty skull, and his bony fin- 
gers still close upon his spear. 



XLVI. 

VALUE OF WEALTH. 

Before the Ender comes, whose charioteer 

Is swift or slow Disease, lay up each year 
Thy harvests of well-doing, wealth that kings, 
Nor thieves can take away. When all the things 

Thou callest thine, goods, pleasures, honors fall, 

Thou, in thy virtue, shalt survive them all. Whittier. 

The question is often asked, Does wealth make hap- 
piness? and is as often answered, No, it does not, 
not in and of itself. 

It is a means of happiness, so far as it gratifies 
natural wants. But when used to gratify vanity, or 
artificial desires, it is then being pandered to ignoble 
puposes. To amass wealth for such ends is belittling 
to true manhood. 

In America there is a great haste to become wealthy, 
i. e., to accumulate great piles of gold, forgetful of 
almost everything else but its acquisition. It has been 
said that England has an aristocracy of birth, China, 
an aristocracy of intellect, but America has an aristoc- 
racy of wealth. 

America cannot be proud of this distinction, for, 
well has it been told, that — 

"111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates and men decay." 
But do men decay where wealth accumulates? 
It would seem so. 

216 



VALUE OF WEALTH 217 

Rome fell through excess of wealth, which caused 
intemperance, profligacy and riotous living. The same 
with Carthage. 

True riches of moral understanding, a high standard 
of living is forgotten, when people revel in much 
wealth. 

This is not true of all, but it is true of many. 

It is true that wealth is power. People perceive 
this, hence the struggle for riches. 

But it is not the greatest power, not the real lever, 
as may be seen in one who has vast possessions, yet 
is idle, dissipated, intemperate. 

Does he win the highest respect of men? 

No, but rather receives the contempt of the wise 
and virtuous. 

Why should one seek for gain? 

It is just and proper so to do, in order to be self- 
supporting. 

It is a duty to secure a competence, to provide for 
sickness, old age and unforseen trials and troubles 
that are likely to arise in any lifetime. 

It is right to provide for future contingencies. To 
strive for comfortable circumstances is a worthy am- 
bition, more than that is excess. 

All should aim to acquire as much property 
as to enable them to afford themselves leisure for im- 
provement of the mind. 

In order to secure a competence one must practice 
economy and some self-denial, eat simple food which 
under all conditions of life is best, and wear plain, 
but always decent, clothing, live temperately and have 
patience. The end sought will finally come. 

To know the value of money one must earn it, must 



218 RIGHT LIVING 

realize the value of work as an equivalent for it; he 
will then know better how to expend it. 

When Henry Wilson was a little rosy-faced boy of 
ten years he was "bound out" to a farmer till he 
should be twenty-one years of age. He had permis- 
sion to attend school one month out of every year. 
At the end of eleven long years of toil and hardship 
his apprenticeship expired and he became a free man. 

His employer gave him as compensation for his 
eleven years of labor a yoke of oxen and six sheep, 
which he sold for the sum of eighty-four silver dollars. 
He paid his late employer of this sum, fifty cents for 
keeping his animals for him, one night. 

He was so unfortunate as to lose a portion of his 
eighty-four dollars in an unprofitable investment. 

Then he went into the woods to cut mill-logs and 
drive a team. He worked a month in this way in mid- 
winter and for this labor and exposure, he was paid 
six dollars. He felt that he earned this money, and, 
as he declared, each of the dollars appeared to him 
as big as the full moon. 

He went to Massachusetts and learned the trade of 
a shoemaker. With his labor he learned habits of 
industry, economy, prudence, good judgment, sobri- 
ety, temperance, integrity, honesty. These, and other 
qualities that he possessed were recognized by the 
people who elected him as their representative to the 
Congress of the United States. 

Henry Wilson had learned the value of money } 
and, when he had plenty, he never became extrava- 
gant, for he had fixed habits of prudence and econ- 
omy. 

Nor, was he parsimonious, but preserved the equa- 
ble disposition that should belong to all true men. 



VALUE OF WEALTH 2:9 

Some people have a natural faculty for money get- 
ting, and wealth seems to flow in upon them in an un- 
interrupted stream. What is such a person to do who 
possesses such money-getting qualities? Turn them into 
a channel of good to others. Seek means to make the 
condition of humanity a little better than it is at 
present. 

Regard the gift as a means to assist those who are 
unable to help themselves. 

Great wealth is a great care. 

A young person once mentioned to Franklin his 
surprise that the possession of great riches should 
ever be attended with undue solicitude, and instanced 
a merchant, who, although possessed of unbounded 
wealth, was as busy and care-worn as any clerk 
in his employ. Franklin, in reply took an apple 
from a fruit stand, and presented it to a child in the 
room who could scarcely grasp it in his little hand. 
He then gave him a second, which filled the other; 
and, choosing a third, remarkable for it size and 
beauty, he presented that also. 

The child, after many ineffectual attempts to hold 
the three apples, dropped the last on the carpet and 
burst into tears. "See," said the sage, "there is a 
little man with more riches than he can enjoy." 

There is a wealth that is superior to gold and silver. 

What is that? 

You will yourself say: 

"It is independence of character." 

It is virtue. 

It is a clean record. 

It is a development of moral wealth. It is the find- 



220 RIGHT LIVING 

ing and doing our real duty to ourselves and others. 

It is the improvement that we make upon ourselves. 

It is education. 

It is that which we put into our heads. Riches may 
take to themselves wings and fly away. Virtuous 
thoughts and the memory of noble deeds stay by us 
always. 

Because you are to support yourselves, and those 
depending upon you, you should seek for wealth to 
obtain the necessaries and comforts of life. Society 
demands this of the good and worthy citizen. 

It also demands men and women of thought, reason, 
intelligence and fair judgment, and wants such, most 
of all; because these move the machinery of business 
and keep it in action. They make a high standard 
of living, high in its noblest sense, and that is the 
need of nations, principalities and powers. 

Good men are the wealth of the world. 



XLVII. 

AVARICE, NOT A MEANS TO LIFE'S BEST END. 

To desire money for its own sake, and, in order to hoard it up is 
avarice. Beattie. 

When the faculty of acquiring money is perverted 
then it becomes avarice. 

In society it is not uncommon to meet two extremes 
— the spendthrift and the miser. 

The one is open-handed, too much so for his own 
good. He spends his means recklessly, never think- 
ing of the future, never counting the cost of an arti- 
cle, or thinking whether he needs it or not. He is 
extravagant and wasteful, expensive and luxurious. 
John Bowers, once a famous wealthy man of Somer- 
set, Mass., boasted to another man of wealth that he 
could eat the costlier breakfast of the two. He sand- 
wiched a hundred-dollar bill between two pieces of 
bread and deliberately swallowed it. Upon one occa- 
sion, a kind friend remonstrated with him upon his 
extravagant methods of living. They were standing 
on the sea-shore. "Why," said he, taking a diamond 
ring of great value from his finger, and tossing it into 
the sea, "it is just as impossible that I can spend 
all my money as that I shall ever see that ring again." 

Some weeks afterward, a fish was caught and its 
stomach contained the identical ring, which Mr.Bowers 
purchased of the fisherman for a great price; he 
221 



222 RIGHT LIVING 

lived to see his vast property fade away like smoke, 
and he became absolutely penniless. Such is generally 
the fate of the spendthrift. 

The opposite of this character is the close, penuri- 
ous person who never spends a cent unless absolutely 
forced to do so. He cannot listen to the voice of 
pleading, of poverty, of charity, but bends all his en- 
ergies to one object, accumulating and hoarding. It 
is not for his immediate, or prospective, needs that he 
.does this, but simply for the gratification of getting 
and having. He is close-fisted, and generally walks 
with his hands closed, as if he were clutching gold. 
His face becomes hard, like stone, his lips are pressed 
firmly together, his head is bent and his whole ap- 
pearance indicates the miser. Suffering of others makes 
no impression upon him and he would not let one of 
his ducats go to save a person's life. He is the victim 
of selfishness and greed. The organ of acquisitiveness 
is unduly excited, the blood is constantly flowing to 
the part of the brain that acts upon that quality, and 
the nerve centers of other faculties like generosity, 
kindness, benevolence, are drained of their supply of 
blood, to support the one faculty of acquisitiveness. 

The man may pile up quantities of gold, but he is 7 
in reality, a pauper, for, to satisfy his great craving, 
he denies himself of everything comfortable, and lives 
poorer than a beggar. 

Nobody loves him, and nobody would regret his loss 
if he were dead, for he is a miser living for himself 
alone. 

In 1762 a miser named Foscue, lived in France. 
By means of extortion and sordid parsimony he amassed 
enormous wealth. The government at one time asked 



A VARICE 



223 



him to advance a sum of money for a loan. I can- 
not do it," he said, "for I am very poor." 

For fear that people might discover how much money 
he had, he dug a deep cave in the cellar of his house 
and hid his gold there. He reached this cave by 
means of a ladder and a trap-door, which closed with 
a spring. 

One day he went down to his cave to count his gold 
and to gloat over it as was his custom, when the trap- 
door fell upon him and the spring-lock, the key to 
which he had left on the outside, snapped and held 
him a prisoner in the cave, where he miserably per- 
ished. Some months afterward, on search being made, 
his body was found in the midst of money-bags, with 
a candlestick lying beside it on the floor. 

Many fall into the habit of avariciousness without 
being aware of it. They begin by saving, from motives 
of economy, at length from habit, finally, because the 
habit has become so strong they cannot resist it. 
Wealth loses its power when avarice steps in. 

Thrift and economy are helps to gain a successful 
livelihood, but virtues may become abnormal used 
to undue excesSc 

When one finds himself thinking constantly of gain 
and nothing else, he may know that avarice is creep- 
ing upon him. Then should he stop and think, "What 
am I doing this for? Is it right? Why should I pur- 
sue this phantom? Any day may see me deprived of 
it. I have enough and to spare. Let me use some 
of this fast-accumulating stuff to assist some other 
who has less. Do I not know some one who is hav- 
ing a hard time to get on in the world?" 

Avarice is but another name for selfishness, and who 



224 RIGHT LIVING 

wants to be selfish? The selfish nature is not the high 
and noble one. Of the two characters the spendthrift 
and the miser, while both are to be deplored, the 
former is superior to the latter, for some one gets good 
from his lavishness, but the miser allows no one to 
profit by his gains. 

A medium between the two is that which one should 
aspire to. This brings more real happiness, and is of 
more good to community, makes a better example for 
others to follow. 

True life should be the aspiration of all. 

THE OLD MAN AND THE PERSIAN MONARCH. 

"Father," said a Persian monarch to an old man, 
who, according to his Oriental usages, bowed before the 
sovereign's throne, "pray be seated; I cannot receive 
homage from one bowed with age, whose head is white 
with the frosts of many winters." 

"And now, father," said the monarch, when he had 
taken the proffered seat, "tell me thine age; how 
many of the sun's revolutions hast thou counted?" 

'Sire," answered the old man, "I am but four years 
old. " 

"What!" interrupted the king, "Fearest thou not to 
answer me falsely or dost thou jest on the very brink 
of the tomb?" 

"I speak not falsely, sire," replied the aged man, 
"neither would I offer a foolish jest on so solemn a 
subject. Eighty long years have I wasted in folly, 
in sinful pleasures and in hoarding up wealth, none 
of which I can take with me when I leave this world. 
Four years only have I spent in doing good to my 
fellowmen; and shall I count those that have been 



A VARICE 225 

utterly wasted? Are they not worse than blank, and 
is not that only worthy to be reckoned as a part of 
my life which has answered life's best end?" 

To answer life's best end should be the aim of all. 
Avarice is not a means unto that end. Learn to say, 
That which is for me I shall have; that which is not 
for me, I must learn not to want. 

When you are getting and holding more than you 
want for use, more than is necessary for old age, sick- 
ness and unexpected difficulties, you are defrauding 
some one who has not enough even for every day 
wants. 

To answer life's best end should be the aim of all. 
Avarice is not a means unto that end. 



XLVIII. 

ONE OF LIFE'S BEST BLOSSOMS. 

A merry heart doth good like a medicine. Scripture. 

This is the story of the bucket. 

"How dismal you look," said a bucket to his com- 
panion as they were going to the well. "Ah/' replied 
the other, "I was reflecting on the uselessness of our 
being filled; for, let us go away ever so full, we al- 
ways come back empty." "Dear me, how strange to 
look at it in that way," said the other bucket. "Now, 
I enjoy the thought that, however empty we come, we 
always go away full. Only look at it in that light and 
you'll be as cheerful as I am." 

It is a happy faculty to look upon the bright side 
of things — to learn that, though the day is cloudy, the 
sun is back of the cloud. Cheerfulness in a house is 
sunshine in it, no matter how furiously the storm rages 
without. 

Do we not shrink from the frowning face? From the 
fretful, peevish person, do we not gladly turn away? 

But how we are lifted when one comes in whose 
face is beaming with smiles and good-humor! He 
may be ignorant, careless, brusque in his manners, 
but his hearty, merry -laugh, his honest, twinkling 
eyes win our hearts in spite of us. Good-nature is 
always a welcome guest in whatever guise it comes, 
and it never stays too long. 
226 



ONE OF LIFE % S BEST BL OSSOMS 227 

You may say "I am too busy to be cheerful. I have 
too many cares. Troubles and tribulations are weighty. 
I feel more like moaning and groaning over my hard- 
ships than singing and smiling. Such trials I have, and 
such hard ones, that I cannot be pleasant and agreea- 
ble." You can. " Cares are life's comforts." You 
would be miserable without them. 

The trials, troubles, the hardships and the lessons, 
would grow light and easy if you meet them, smilingly. 
Try it and see. 

Then be cheerful, cultivate a sunny temper. 

Why? 

Because it makes happiness. 

It is a joy in the household. 

It contributes to health and peace. 

It is the fire that makes home, school, society, pleas- 
ant and agreeable. 

It lightens and brightens the shop, the counting- 
house, the factory and even a prison, may lose half 
its gloom by the cheerful disposition of its officers 
and occupants. 

Good-nature is fit for a palace and makes a hovel 
glorious. Man is the only being that knows how to 
laugh naturally. 

No one has a right to be a cynic and forever 
scowling and frowning, unless he lives in the woods 
all by himself; and, it is a question if he has, even, 
then, for the birds, insects and animals ought not to 
be frightened. 

Even the dog, the horse, the cow and all domestic 
animals, incline toward the cheerful person and greet 
him in kindly tones. The scholar who comes into 
school with a smile on his lips and another in his eyes, 



228 RIGHT LIVING 

is always a favorite, while the heavy, morose, snap- 
pish, snarling boy or girl, makes no real friends. 

At a certain age, young people are apt to be op- 
pressed with melancholia. They feel they are not 
appreciated, no one cares for them, they say, and they 
contemplate suicide. Doubtless there are, sometimes, 
physiological reasons for this state of mind, which is 
morbid and unnatural. 

By all means try to overcome this condition of the 
system. Be cheerful. Make an effort. Suppose you 
Jo not feel like it. 
Try. 

Put your hands to some work. Read. Study. Oc- 
cupy your mind. 

Visit the home of poverty and sorrow. Note the 
difference between your home and that. 
Count your blessings. 

Divide them with another less fortunate. Speak 
words of comfort to some distressed one. 

Do not let your mind dwell on yourself. That is 
selfish. Accustom yourself to look at the best instead 
of the worst. 

Good-nature is more than good gifts. It is of more 
value than precious gems. 

Good-nature is a jewel, the most beautiful of all. 
It is a coronet of glory. Dr. Johnson said that 
the habit of looking at the best side of a thing is 
worth more to a man than a thousand pounds a year. 
Make the best of everything. Sorrow loses half its 
sadness, disappointment its sting, by seeking the 
good on the other side, when you turn it over. 

Good-nature is catching. By cultivating it, you 
communicate it to others, and thus become a benefac- 



ONE OF LIFE > S BEST BL OSSOMS 229 

tor of your race. It is a duty to cultivate cheerfulness 
because you thus make health and pleasure and be- 
come a moral force in the world. 

Charles II. after the Restoration, sent for Milton, 
the poet, and in a very indignant and insolent manner, 
asked him if he did not consider his blindness a pun- 
ishment inflicted by heaven for having written against 
the king, his father. Milton replied gently, "If the 
calamities," said he, "which befall us in this world 
are sent as punishment for our crimes, how much 
greater than mine, must have been that of the king, 
your father, for he lost his head, whereas I have only 
lost my eyes." 

A KING WITH A SWEET TEMPER. 

Whenever Louis XII. of France, made his triumphal 
entry into a town that he had conquered, he wore a 
coat of mail with a device of a swarm of bees and the 
motto, "They bear no sting." The natural sweetness 
of his disposition led him to treat his enemies with 
great magnanimity when in his power. When L'Alviano 
the general of the Venetian armies was taken prisoner 
by the French troops, Louis acted toward him with 
his usual politeness, but the haughty general answered 
the king with insolence. At this unexpected abuse of 
his kindness, Louis simply ordered the general to the 
prisoners' quarters and turned to those around him, 
saying, "I have done well in sending Alviano away. I 
might have put myself in a passion with him, and 
should have greatly regretted doing so. I have con- 
quered him; I should learn to conquer myself." Such 
gentleness shows true nobility. 



XLIX. 

REASON AND FREE INQUIRY. 

Nothing can stand in this age of reason that is not supported by 
facts. Solomon Schindler. 

Reason is the noblest and best, and this has been freely given us, 

Epictetus. 

When full of doubts it is the province of intelligent 
beings to remove them by proper inquiry. Jefferson 
said the only effectual agents against error are reason 
and free inquiry. Little by little, a step here and an- 
other there, the world has gained information, arisen 
to pinnacles of knowledge and heights of wisdom. 
By the exercise of reason and free inquiry, the bless- 
ings of good government have been attained. All ad 
vantages enjoyed to day have come in the same channel. 

Whatever places itself in opposition to the laws of 
judgment and reason cannot be right. 

But what is reason? 

It is that faculty of judgment that lifts human be- 
ings above the brute; although some animals, un- 
doubtedly make use of reason in a dim way, yet they 
cannot tell why or wherefore. Men and women can 
as a rule; so can children at an early age, be taught 
to think, reflect and distinguish between things right 
and things wrong. 

An opinion is presented by some one as a truth. 

What are the arguments that support this alleged 

truth? 

230 



REASON AND FREE INQUIRY 231 

When examined by the light of knowledge, if it 
cannot bear the weight of such knowledge, it cannot 
be a truth. 

Every mind of intelligence has the capacity of rea- 
son, and with this power, by the aid of the senses, it 
comprehends the right. 

We learn to discriminate between the right and the 
wrong by inquiry. 

It is in this way we come to be fair and candid in 
our judgments of others, that is, whenever our minds 
are unprejudiced and unbiased, as we ought always to 
seek to have them. 

It is by means of inquiry we acquire knowledge, 
t?'ue knowledge, when reason goes hand in hand with 
inquiry. There is a little translation from the Per- 
sian which runs thus : They asked their wisest man by 
what means he had attained to such a high degree of 
knowledge. He replied, "Whatever I did not know, 
I was not ashamed to inquire about." 

The beginning of the Reformation dawned by means 
of inquiry. 

Are you doubtful on any point? 

Do you hesitate as to which is best? Do you ques- 
tion the wisdom of a rule, or law? 

Let your doubts be full and free. It may be you 
are mistaken and inquiry will set you right. 

Let reason work. 

It is a duty we owe ourselves and others, to permit 
the full play of free inquiry, for only in this way can 
we get at the truth of things. 

This is supremely the age of reason. But we should 
examine with care and candor, with thought, reason 
and judgment, if we would ascertain real truth, plain 
facts. 



232 RIGHT LIVING 

Reason is a great gift. And why were we endowed 
with it, if not for use? to learn better things than 
such as we already know? 

Reason is ours that we may not be deceived by 
specious arguments, false, or insincere statements. 

There are many knotty problems in the world. Shall 
you say, "Oh let somebody else solve them?" No, solve 
them, yourself. Another should not do your reason- 
ing. Reason for yourself. Inquire for yourself. 

The unreasoning are found in prisons and poor- 
houses, in asylums and charitable intitutions. True, 
they are found in society too, but they are not the 
best citizens, or, the most capable. 

You should exercise reason and free inquiry for the 
sake of your own welfare and the welfare of those 
around you, in order that you may know the duties of 
good citizenship, and knowing, practice them to the 
end of producing and maintaining good and happy 
conditions of society. Thus, will you add to the sum 
of the world's happiness as well as your own. 

This would be a miserable world if reason were nevel 
exercised. And there would be no knowledge if there 
was no inquiry. Are there some things you cannot 
understand? 

Your duty is not to pass them by, but to examine, 
to know why and for what purpose they exist. 

THE STONE IN THE ROAD. 

There was once a duke who disguised himself and 
placed a great rock in the middle of the road near his 
palace. 

Next morning a peasant came that way with his ox- 
cart. "Oh, these lazy people!" said he, "there is this 



REASON AND FREE INQ UIR Y 233 

stone lying right in the middle of the road and no 
one will take the trouble to put it out of the way." 
And so Hans went on, scolding about the laziness of 
the people. 

Next came a gay soldier. His head was held so 
far back that he did not notice the stone and so he 
stumbled over it. He began to storm the country 
people around there for leaving a huge rock in the 
road. Then he went on. 

Next came a company of merchants. When they came 
to the stone in the road they went off in single file on 
the other side. One of them cried out: "Did any- 
body ever see the like of that big stone lying here the 
whole of the morning and not a single person stopping 
to take it away!" 

It lay there for three weeks, and no one tried to 
move it. No one inquired how it came there. Then 
the duke sent around to all the people on his lands 
to meet him where the rock lay, as he had something 
to tell them. The day came and a great crowd gath- 
ered. Old Hans, the farmer was there, and so were 
the merchants and the soldier. A horn was heard and 
a splendid cavalcade came galloping up. The duke 
alighted and began to speak to the assembled people. 
"My friends," said he, "it was I who put* this stone 
here three weeks ago. Every passer-by has left it just 
where it was and scolded his neighbor for not taking 
it out of the way." 

He stooped and lifted up the stone. Directly un- 
derneath it was a round hollow, and, in the hollow 
was a small leathern bag and upon it was written: 
"For him who lifts up the stone." 

He untied the bag and turned it upside down, and 



234 RIGHT LIVING 

out upon the stone fell a beautiful gold ring and 
twenty large, bright gold coins. So they all lost the 
prize because they had not learned the lesson of in- 
quiry, or formed the habit of reasoning, united with 
diligence. 

Thus may be lost many a golden truth, many a val- 
uable prize, by neglecting to freely inquire into the 
nature of things, and to use the reasoning faculty. 



L. 

FREE SPEECH. 

To speak his thought is every free man's right. Anon. 

Each drop of blood that e'er through true heart ran 
With lofty message, ran for thee and me. Lowell 

Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Scripture. 

In this country, America, when any great question 
is at issue, the people have a free and perfect right to 
call a meeting, assemble together, and discuss freely 
the merits and demerits of the subject, whatever it 
may be. The humblest citizen has the same right, in 
this respect, as the highest and best educated. 

Anybody can thus issue a call for a public meeting, 
and, if he has any grievance, he can demand a hear- 
ing, and his word is bound to be heard. It is a great 
privilege to speak the honest thought, although that 
thought may be sneered at, and, perhaps, rejected. 

In some other countries it is different. Citizens 
are sometimes obliged to suffer in silence, because of 
the bar on free speech. We enjoy the privilege on 
account of its being one of the fundamental principles 
of our free government that it guarantees freedom of 
speech. What is the advantage of it? It is this: 

You not only have the privilege of expressing your 
own ideas fully and freely, but you have the expres- 
sion also, of the opinions of others. New light is, in 
235 



236 RIGHT LIVING 

this way, given and received, and, "Truth is never put 
to the worst in an open and free encounter." 

Why should all possible avenues of truth be opened? 
Because in this way we acquire new strength and 
vitality to meet the issues constantly unfolding before 
a free people. 

Attempts are sometimes made to put a stop to free 
speech. This is wrong and unjust. He serves a poor 
cause who dares not let all things be said of it that 
will. 

If the cause is true, examination will not injure it; 
if untrue, corrupt, or evil, the sooner its real status 
is known the better. 

Free speech may, however, be abused, as, when men 
women or children stoop to personalities, to wrong and 
berate others. 

A word once spoken cannot be recalled, and it may 
do great harm, therefore, all should be careful and 
weigh well their words before they are spoken. 
"Speech is silver, silence is golden." 
To know when to speak and when to remain silent 
is a fine knowledge. Words have led to murders, 
but silence has prevented them. In a quarrel, the 
silent tongue is the wise man's possession. 

A woman who had suffered barbarous beatings 
from her husband went to a noted wise man of the 
village to inquire how she might cure her husband of 
these paroxysms of violence. The soothsayer heard 
her complaint; and, after pronouncing some hard 
words and using various gesticulations while he 
filled a vial with a mysterious mixture, desired her, 
whenever her husband was in a passion, to take a 
mouthful of the liquor and keep it in her mouth for 



FREE SPEECH 237 

five minutes. The woman, quite overjoyed at so sim- 
ple a remedy, strictly followed the counsel and es- 
caped the usual chastisement. The contents of the 
bottle being at last exhausted, she returned to the 
wise man, anxiously begging to have a fresh supply 
of the same liquid. 

"You foolish woman!" said the soothsayer; there 
was nothing in the bottle but brown sugar and water. 
When your husband is in a tantrum, hold your tongue, 
and, my life for it, he will not lay a finger on 
you. " 

We see by the above that one is not sorry for the 
words unsaid, but too many are sorry for the words 
spoken. 

It is necessary to watch one's self that no word 
pass the lips that might be regretted. 

Profane speech should never be indulged in. It is 
a low and degrading use of language. 

The unchaste speech is still worse than profanity. 
A moral person invariably shrinks from one who tells 
low stories, who is quick to turn good and pure 
speech into dirty channels. The teller of coarse sto- 
ries should have no place in decent society. Still 
another improper use of language is the slang phrase 
so much in vogue. The English language is rich 
enough in expression to be always chaste and pure in 
conveying thought. 

Speak no evil. If you can say no good thing of one, 
be silent. 

"Think all you speak; but speak not all you think; 

Thoughts are all your own; your words are so no more; 
Where Wisdom steers, wind cannot make you sink; 
Lips never err when she does keep the door." 



23S RIGHT LIVING 

WATCHING ONE'S SELF. 

An old man tells the following story. "When I was 
a boy we had a schoolmaster who had an odd way of 
catching boys. One day he called out, 'Boys, I must 
have close attention to your books. The first one of 
you that sees another boy idle, I want you to inform 
me, and I will attend to his case.' "'Ah,' thought I 
to myself, 'there's Joe Simmons. I don't like him. 
I'll watch him, and if I see him look off his book, I'll 
tell. It was not long before I saw Joe looking off his 
book, and I immediately informed the master. 

"'Indeed!' said he; 'and how did you know he was 
idle?' 

" T saw him,' said I. 

" 'You did ! and were your eyes on your book when 
you saw him?' 

"I was caught and I never watched for idle boys 
again!" 

While working for free speech we should never for- 
get that it is for all and not for a privileged few. 
And no one should be so arrogant as to be 1 ieve that he 
has the whole truth and all there is. The best and 
wisest are liable to be mistaken. 

The rights we take ourselves we should freely ac- 
cord to others, even to the utterance of unpopular 
views. 

Free Speech. 

All conviction should be valiant: 

Tell thy truth, if truth it be, 
Never seek to stem its current; 

Thoughts, like rivers, find the sea; 
It will fit the widening circle 

Of eternal verity. 



FREE SPEECH 

Speak thy thought if thou believ'st it, 

Let it jostle whom it may, 
E'en although the foolish scorn it 

Or the obstinate gainsay; 
Every seed that grows to-morrow 

Lies beneath the clod to-day. 

If our sires, the noble-hearted, 

Pioneers of things to come, 
Had like some been weak and timid, 

Traitors to themselves, and dumb, 
Where would be our present knowledge? 

Where the hoped millennium? 

Where would be triumphant Science, 
Searching with her fearless eyes, 

Through the infinite creation 
For the soul that underlies — 

Soul of beauty, soul of goodness, 
Wisdom of the earth and skies? 

Where would be all great inventions, 
Each from bygone fancies born, 

.Issued first in doubt and darkness, 
Launched 'mid apathy and scorn? 

How could noontime ever light us 
But for dawning of the morn? 

Where would be our free opinion, 
Where the right to speak at all, 

If our sires, like some mistrustful, 
Had been deaf to duty's call, 

And concealed the thoughts within them, 
Lying down for fear to fall? 

Though an honest thought, outspoken, 
Lead thee into chains or death, 

What is life compared with virtue? 
Shalt thou not survive thy breath? 

Hark! the future age invites thee! 
Listen! tremble, what it saith. 



239 



240 RIGHT LIVING 

It demands thy thought in justice, 

Debt, not tribute of the free; 
Have not ages long departed 

Groaned, and toiled, and bled for thee? 
If the past have lent thee wisdom, 

Pay it to futurity. Charles Mackay. 



LI. 

A FREE PRESS. 

"The liberty of the press and of the people must stand or fall to- 
gether." — 

Without a free press we should, as a free people 
make little or no headway. Whenever you hear of 
any person desiring to stifle the press, you may de- 
pend the cause he has in hand is not a just one. 

There have been instances in the history of the 
United States, where attempts were made to stop 
free speech, for the imprisonment of writers, and 
to destroy the dissemination of views by break- 
ing the printing press; as, in the advocacy of anti- 
slavery sentiments its advocates were mobbed, mal- 
treated shamefully, denied the right to speak in pub- 
lic halls, and forbidden to circulate their views by 
means ot the press. 

This treatment was real evidence that the cause was 
a just one, and, by right, ought to have been heard. 
The press is a marvelous agent in the spread of truth 
and justice. It is an educator and, were it so that 
one, lacking school advantages, had only the news- 
papers of the day to read, he would become a well- 
educated man. A free press is a medium of commu- 
nication of ideas. 

It heralds abroad new truths. 

It moulds public opinion. 
241 



242 RIGHT LIVING 

It is a power before which many other powers fade, 
and become insignificant. "The pen is mightier than 
the sword." 

The press is greater than armies. 

Its absolute freedom should be maintained. 

When it is bought, when it stoops to pander to 
vice, low passions, unholy appetites, or its freedom 
is purchased by wealth, it is no longer free. 

It was not without some trouble that a free press 
obtained a foothold in our country. In 1642 Sir Wil- 
liam Berkeley assumed the Government of Virginia. 
He wrote back to England these words: "Thank God 
there are no free schools nor printing here, and I hope 
we shall not have them for a hundred years." 

When Sir Edmund Andross was appointed governor 
of New England in 1686, under James II., he had in- 
structions to suffer no printing press within his juris- 
diction. 

But now, both the press and the public school stand 
upon a firm and assured basis. 

It is incumbent upon each one to sustain them, to 
throw no obstacle in the way of either. 

As American citizens we should guard the liberty 
of the press. We may not think it politic to print 
much that we hear. But your opinion is that of but 
one, and, the most ultra reformers, being conscien- 
tious, have a right to give publicity to their ideas. 
To put a stop to free utterance, because differing from 
our own thoughts, or, for any other reason, would be 
to toll the death-knell of our free institutions. 

True, there is much bombastic ranting, there are 
many lurid speeches that flame and dazzle, and fall 
to the ground. Such, do little, if any harm, in the 



A FREE PRESS 243 

long run, whether printed or not. The business of 
life goes speeding on, events succeed events so quickly, 
that the most audacious words are soon lost in the 
circling eddies of the whirlpools of busy life. 

We are never of so much account to our fellows as 
to ourselves. 

It takes the majority of people a long time to find 
out, that, after all, they are of little importance, a mere 
dot, a simple speck on the ocean of life, seen for a time, 
then blotted out and soon forgotten. 

But influence remains, examples are left. 

Therefore, it is the business of all to see that in- 
fluence goes for that which is right and just. 

But is it right to print anything one may please? 

Upon general subjects, relating to the welfare of all, 
yes; but, the freedom of the press should, upon no 
account, be used for anything calculated to injure the 
morals of community. 

Indecency in language, improper illustrations or 
pictures of an immoral character, vile words and low 
phrases, should never be allowed the use of the print- 
ing press. 

Why? 

Because thus the seeds of depravity are sown, good 
taste and good manners are insulted, and, instead of 
elevating the people, they are, by these means, poi- 
soned and corrupted. 

This is abuse of a free press, and should never be 
allowed. Hence, it is the duty to guard with care a 
free press, that it be used only for the high purpose 
of education and elevation of citizens, and the pro- 
tection of their personal rights. With ever-increas- 
ing zeal should the liberty of the press be preserved. 



2 4 4 RIGHT LIVING 

Those who would constitute themselves censors of the 
press, who would crush free speech, and muzzle a free 
press are of such quality as tyrants are made of. 

Said Washington, in his Farewell Address, "In pro- 
portion as the structure of a government gives force 
to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion 
should be enlightened." 

To this end, and for this purpose, there should be 
maintained a free press, in order that the best thoughts 
of the best minds may be freely given, and incentives 
to good conduct and good government be freely cir- 
culated. 

Good conduct and good government establish man 
at the apex of creation. From them have sprung a 
wholesome liberty and a true union of states. Let 
them be, as Daniel Webster once said, "Now and for- 
ever, one and inseparable." 

The Press. 

"The press! What is the press?" I cried; 

When thus a wondrous voice replied: 

"In me all human knowledge dwells; 

The oracle of oracles, 
Past, present, future, I reveal, 
Or, in oblivious silence seal; 

What I preserve can perish never, 
What I forego is lost forever. 

"I speak all dialects; by me 
The deaf may hear, the blind may see, 

The dumb converse, the dead of old 

Communion with the living hold: 
All lands are one beneath my rule, 
All nations learners in my school; 

Men of all ages everywhere, 

Become contemporaries there. 



A FREE PRESS 245 

"I am an omnipresent soul; 
I live and move throughout the whole; 

The things of darkness I lay bare, 

And though unseen and everywhere, 
I quicken minds from natures sloth, 
Fashion their forms, sustain their growth; 

And when my influence flags or flies, 

Matter may live, but spirit dies. 

"All that philosophers have sought, 
Science discovered, genius wrought; 

All that reflective memory stores, 

Or rich imagination pours; 
All that the wit of man conceives, 
All that be wishes, hopes, believes; 

All that he loves, or fears, or hates, 

All that to heaven or earth relates, 

— These are the lessons that I teach 
In speaking silence, silence speech. 
"Ah! who like me can bless or curse? 
What can be better, what be worse, 
Than language framed for Paradise, 
Or sold to infamy and vice? 

Blest be the man by whom I bless, 

And shame on him who wrongs the press!'' 

James Montgomery. 



Lit 

RIGHTS OF ANIMALS. 

I would not enter on my list of friends 
(Though graced with polish'd manners and fine sense, 
Yet wanting sensibility), the man 
Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm. Cowper. 

As men, women and children have rights to be re- 
spected, so have animals. They have a right to be 
well treated. They cannot speak and make known 
their wants and wishes and they are often made to 
suffer for this reason. They are beaten and abused 
without just cause. In fact there is never any reason 
to strike a'nd abuse dumb animals, for it is to be in- 
ferred that they do as well as they know how to do, 
and would do better if they could. 

They have a right to be treated fairly, a right to be 
respected. 

Animals are subject to heat and cold, they are sus- 
ceptible to pleasure and to pain. 

They are curious, and some have large imitation. 

They are sagacious, affectionate, have some vanity 
and a good deal of jealousy. They can be educated 
in a degree, and, without doubt, exercise, in no small 
measure, the powers of reasoning. They are faithful, 
in some instances, as to dogs, unto death. 

We should treat animals with great kindness and 
consideration, especially domestic animals, not only 
246 



RIGHTS OF ANIMALS 247 

because they are dependent upon us, but because it is 
right to treat all creatures kindly. 

Morality teaches we should treat with absolute jus- 
tice all creatures, great or small, whether depending 
upon us or not, no matter what their origin and future 
destiny. 

That person is not far advanced, morally, who rec- 
ognizes no right of beings, save those found in his 
own circle of living. He, who would wilfully neglect 
or injure the dumb creatures in his charge, would 
hardly hesitate to abuse and injure members of his own 
household. 

If the dumb animals who are exposed to the cold of 
winter, or, who are left to wallow in filth and mud, if 
the poor over-driven and Overloaded horses, who toil 
painfully up our hills, if the cows who are fed upon swill 
and other refuse, who long for good food, and pure 
water, could place their grievances before courts of 
justice, and ask for redress, how ashamed and mor- 
tified would be their cruel and unfeeling owners! How 
infinitely inferior would they appear to the beasts that 
they wrong. 

The individual of large moral understanding sees at 
once, that we should be kind and tender-hearted to- 
ward everything that lives and breathes, because we 
are intelligent and reasonable beings, and our natural 
benevolence should teach us to treat properly all creat- 
ures in our care, whether as pets, helps in our busi- 
ness, or guardians of our property. 

In Egypt and India there is a belief that the souls 
of men, after death, reappear in animals. Believers 
in this doctrine are universally patient, gentle and re- 
spectful toward the animal creation, since, as they 



248 RIGHT LIVING 

affirm, they do not know that their ancestors may 
not be living in some of them. 

Undoubtedly, some of the ancient fairy tales of en- 
chantment may be traced to this belief. 

That man is not far progressed from wild brutes, 
is the fact that there can be found those who train 
dogs and fowl to fight each other; that, in civilized 
communities, among those calling themselves men, 
there can be found enough to assemble in a crowd, 
to witness such horrible scenes as dog fights and cock 
fights who will look on, bet large sums of money, and 
applaud these disgraceful scenes. In ancient Rome 
it was a custom to celebrate great events or the death 
of great men by gladiatorial exhibitions. The gladia- 
tors were slaves and made to take a solemn oath that 
they would fight till victory or death ensued. If they 
did not fight with each other, they fought with beasts 
who were kept in a wild, and nearly famished state, for 
that purpose. 

It is told that Titus gave an exhibition when the 
great Colosseum was dedicated in which five thousand 
wild beasts were slain. These dedicatory exercises 
lasted for a hundred days. 

In the time of the Emperor Trajan, there was a great 
exhibition prolonged for three months, in which two 
thousand men fought, either with each other or wild 
beasts, until they were killed. This contest drew to- 
gether seventy thousand Romans who found pleasure 
in witnessing these revolting and most shocking mur- 
ders. It is a remnant of such barbarism, that, in our 
own time and in our own country, causes men to train 
for prize fighters, whose exploits are published in all 
the papers, who are laden with honors and presents, 
and adorned with belts and medals. 



RIGHTS OF ANIMALS 249 

It is also a part of the same brutal nature, that per- 
mits those calling themselves ladies and gentlemen, 
to engage in hunting foxes to the death, an amuse- 
ment that neither elevates nor educates moral senti- 
ment. 

The bull-fights in Spain and in Mexico, are of the 
same degrading nature. 

It is a low state of morals that can witness men 
pound and beat each other. It indicates an unfeel- 
ing, unthinking, and a selfish nature, to lead an ani- 
mal into the arena to be torn, bitten, mangled and 
goaded to death. 

It is in the same line to hunt a hare, or any animal, 
with hounds until the poor creature, panting and faint- 
ing, drops dead from fear, pain and exhaustion. 

Dogs have of ten been worried and tortured until they 
have bitten some one, and then killed for the act they 
were made to do. A story is told of a brutal man, 
who, having incurred the animosity of a beautiful St. 
Bernard dog by abuse, was bitten by the animal. The 
man told his owner that if he should be bitten again 
by the dog he should kill him. Not long after, pass- 
ing that way, the dog nipped at his pantaloons as he 
passed. The man with one blow from the cudgel that 
he carried, struck the dog dead on the spot. He im- 
mediately commenced a series of fierce blows upon his 
dead body. The owner coming up said, "I perceive 
you have killed my dog — why do you persist in beat- 
ing him now that he is dead?" The man shrieked in 
fierce, vindictive wrath: "I want this dog to under- 
stand there is such a thing as punishment after death!" 

To willfully and wantonly take the life of the song- 
sters in the forest, to stop the sweet and flowing 



250 RIGHT LIVING 

song, to hush the trilling note, to still the tremble of 
the throat, to dull the sparkle of the eye, is cruel 
sport. It blunts the moral nature, and lowers the 
standard of true manhood. A far more manly recrea- 
tion is it, to protect these happy serenaders from that 
which would destroy and mutilate. 

It bespoke a kind heart in the lad who had raised 
his gun to shoot a bird, and then, suddenly dropped 
it; and when asked why he did not shoot, replied, "I 
couldn't, cos he sung so!" 

It does not speak highly for the moral development 
of man that societies are organized, and agents ap- 
pointed for the protection of animals from heartless 
and abusive men. 

Let us try for the development, and better unfold- 
ment of human nature, and the cultivation of the moral 
forces so that people will be ashamed to have such 
societies in existence. 

Domestic animals are indispensable to the comfort 
of humanity and are entitled to, and worthy of all care 
and kindness. 

With the highest moral development of man, brutal- 
ity, revenge, retaliation in anger, abuse and cruelty 
toward the human race, and all lower orders of ani- 
mals, cease. 

That which we would not like done to ourselves we 
should never do, wantonly, even to the lowest of the 
animal creation. 

He who respects the rights of animals will be re- 
gardful of the rights of men. 

ANDROCLUS. 

Androclus was a Roman slave, and is said to have 
lived in the early part of the first century. 



RIGHTS OF ANIMALS 251 

His master, as the story goes, was very unkind and 
tyrannical toward him. One day when he could bear 
the insults and severity of his master no longer, he 
ran away. A search was made for him, and he was 
captured and returned to his cruel owner, who, to 
punish him and set an example for other slaves, con- 
demned him to be devoured by wild beasts in a circus. 
Sadly Androclus awaited his fate, from which, it 
seemed, there was no redress or reprieve. At length 
the fateful day arrived, and Androclus was led, faint- 
ing and trembling, into the arena, where at the same 
time a hungry lion, almost starved for the very occa- 
sion, was loosed from his cage to meet and tear in- 
stantly in pieces the unhappy slave. But what was 
the amazement of the people who had gathered to wit- 
ness the scene to see the starving lion rush fiercely 
forward, and then pausing, walk gently toward Andro- 
clus and affectionately lick his hand, caressing thus in 
his dumb way the victim placed there to appease his 
hunger! The audience sat in speechless bewilderment 
for a moment, and then cheer upon cheer rent the air as 
Androclus patted the head of the lion, returning his 
mute caress. 

The story coming to the ears of the emperor, he 
sent for Androclus and inquired if he could tell the 
reason for the action of the lion. Androclus then re- 
lated that when he ran away from his master he sought 
refuge in a cave. After a while a lion came in limp- 
ing. Something seemed to be the matter with his 
leg, and he was apparently suffering terribly. Instead 
of attacking the man, as one would suppose he would 
do, he held up his paw and moaned. Androclus ex- 
amined the paw and found it pierced by a thorn, which 



252 RIGHT LIVING 

he carefully extracted. The lion appeared grateful for 
the relief from pain and made no effort to hurt him, 
but, on the contrary, he attached himself to the man, 
and brought him food, and by his conduct manifested 
a desire for his companionship and friendship. When 
Androclus was captured the lion was taken also, but 
it was not known that the two were friends. 

The emperor was so pleased with the story that he 
ordered Androclus to be set at liberty, and presented 
him with the lion, who ever afterward followed him 
everywhere he went, his most faithful friend and at- 
tendant. 

This story illustrates the fact that kindness and 
good deeds, done even to animals, have a wonderful 
power. We are never sorry for being kind, but un- 
kindness brings not only sorrow to others, but many 
regrets to ourselves as well as to all concerned. 



LIII. 

RIGHTS OF CHILDREN. 

The earth was green, the sky was fair, 
And life to them was then and there; 

Their future in "to-morrow' 1 lay 

Their past was lost in "yesterday." Jeffrey. 

The world has been slow to learn that men have 
rights, slower still to comprehend that little children 
have rights as sacred as life and happiness — the great- 
est of all rights. 

Do you see the hospitals, reformatories, asylums 
and penitentiaries in every city? Did you ever ask 
why these establishments of brick, wood and stone, 
had to be erected? If the rights of children had been 
thought of, cared for and respected all along, would 
these painful and unwelcome followers of civilization 
have appeared at all? No. 

The trouble is people have been discussing, and still 
continue to discuss, and deal with results, instead of 
causes. The forces that produce theundesired effects 
have not been heeded. 

Some think that jails and almshouses are necessary 
adjuncts of civilization. Do you think this is true? 
Do you believe these abominations ought to be re- 
garded as necessary evils, that must be provided for, 
and nothing said, no remonstrance given, or inquiries 

made, wherefore? 

253 



2 5 4 RIGHT LI VI NG 

Do you think, if lives were pure, upright and mor- 
ally true, that such curses of the present time as are 
seen on all sides, would be apparent? 

If children were taught the highest morality and 
that it must be lived daily and hourly, for its own 
sake, should we see the blind, the deaf, the impotent, 
the idiotic and insane, everywhere, as to day? These 
unfortunates are the mute protests against lives of 
ignorance and immorality. Though mute, yet they 
speak in thunder tones to you and to all, command- 
ing all to live according to the highest and truest 
moral laws. These commands must be obeyed if we 
would be healthy, happy and free from taint of dis- 
ease and crime. 

The rights of children are pre-eminent. 

Children are entitled to the best this world affords. 
The first right of a child is to be well-born, i. e., born 
with good, physical health. It has a right to be born 
into a home where there are good conditions, right 
principles. It has a right to the inheritance of good 
qualities. It has a right to good environment in its 
home and social life. It has a right to be born of a 
clear, clean, pure and honest life in father and mother. 

The next right of a child is to proper training and 
education, to the best and noblest moral teaching. 

He has a right to know the laws of his being, the 
moral laws that will guide him safely over the billows 
and breakers of the ocean of life. He has a right to 
know all the glorious stars that shine in a virtuous 
and noble life. 

It is his right to know his origin and, so far as 
possible, his future destiny. 

Asking for information upon any topic, it is his 
right to be correctly informed. 



RIGHTS OF CHILDREN 255 

Knowledge is to be acquired in some way, knowl- 
edge of all the great mysteries of life and being. 

If it does not come in a proper and legitimate chan- 
nel, it is sure to be found in some obscure or question- 
able avenue. A child has a right to an honest answer 
to every honest question. 

Much crime, many mishaps, a great amount of pain 
and sorrow, might be spared children by intelligent 
and wise teaching. 

Sin, suffering and wrong might be avoided and the 
moral tone lifted, instead of lowered, by judicious and 
wholesome instruction, in the physiological structure 
of the human body. The child has a right to know 
how to take proper care of his body, to be informed 
how to live rightly and well; how to live so that he 
may be respected, and how to respect himself. He 
has a right to know how to exercise his reasoning fac- 
ulties upon all subjects— a right to know the means 
by which he may avoid pain, and increase pleasure. 

He has a right to know the simple truth and the 
way to make it useful to himself and to others. 

He has a right to know the way to be a producer 
as well as a consumer. He has a right to be taught 
how to make a living — to be self-supporting — to learn 
the use of his good right hand. 

As every child has the right to good treatment and 
to be respected, so is it incumbent upon all children to 
treat others well, and to respect everybody. 

The purpose of true education and moral training 
is to develop and bring out the best that is in the 
child. He is to grow up, become a citizen, a business 
factor, a parent, in all probability, and the knowledge 
he receives he is to impart to others. Because he is 



256 RIGHT LIVING 

to take a part in the activities of life as a member of 
society, to guide, direct, and deal with others, it is 
therefore necessary that he abstain from wrong-doing, 
and strive, to the best of his ability to do good, to live 
rightly, justly and temperately. 

The rights he takes to himself, he will not deny to 
others, and he will take no right that will injure an- 
other. 

Children are all men and women in embryo, that is, 
little men and little women. 

Truth, honor, love, justice and reason are for them 
the same as for their elders. All the qualities of true 
manhood and noble womanhood are inherent in them 
and are brought out by time, training and circum- 
stances. 

Restraint is sometimes necessary and proper, for 
children are ignorant always, until taught better. 

It is by beginning early, in ways of nobleness and 
right living, that people become perfect in them. 

It is easy to begin right, and then, when one is old 
he will not depart from the right, or, he will be less 
apt to do so. 

"You can't teach an old dog new tricks," said old 
Judge Dewey, of Yellow Mound City, when his wife 
begged him for the third time to remember to eat with 
his fork at her approaching dinnerparty; "I'll try not 
to forget, my dear, but I wasn't brought up to it. 
Folks ought to do what they are brought up to." 

He did not remember at the dinner party. His knife 
went to his mouth a dozen times. Next day, when 
the family was dining alone, the old judge detected 
his youngest son, Frank, with his knife at his lips. 

"Eating with your knife, sir? Leave the table!" 



RIGHTS OF CHILDREN 25} 

thundered the old judge. "You'll eat bread and milk 
till further orders." 

"Really, papa, I think you are too hard on poor 
Frankie, " said Mrs. Dewey, as the little fellow left 
the table. The faces of the elder boys and the grown 
up daughters showed that they agreed with their 
mother. 

"He ate with his knife," growled the old man. 

"So did you at the dinner," retorted Mrs. Dewey, 
severely. 

"Don't I know it!" returned the judge. "Don't I 
know it! I eat with my knife because I was brought 
up to it, but that boy wasn't brought up to it. None 
of my children was brought up to it, and if I catch 
one of 'em doing it, as sure as I live, I'll lock em up 
on spoon victuals till they learn the use of a fork!" — . 



LIV. 

HUMAN RIGHTS; OR, THE EQUALITY OF MAN. 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created 
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; 
that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, 
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." 
[Declaration of American Independence. Adopted July 4th, 
1776.] 

Nothing is wider from the mark than that all are 
equal in all respects. There are weakly, sickly beings 
and others, strong, robust, health) 7 — people endowed 
with great mental capacity and those weak and infe- 
rior in this respect— some are of one color, some of 
another, as the Asiatic or Mongolian race, the Cauca- 
sian and the African, each showing varying types, and 
indicating different qualities of mental and physical 
vigor. 

But, in regard to the right to life, to liberty, to en- 
joyment of the pure air and the clear water, to sun- 
light and moonlight, to the privileges that Nature 
bountifully gives, to the happiness of health, home and 
affection, these are natural and inalienable, belonging 
as much to one as to another. Upon this strong, 
broad basis of American liberty, is also the freedom 
to think, freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, 
freedom to engage in any pursuit leading to pleasure, 
providing it does not hinge or infringe upon the rights 
258 



HUMAN RIGHTS 259 

of another. And, as we have no right to impinge upon 
the rights of others, so no living being has any 
right to interfere with our just rights and privileges. 
That power or organization, whatever it may be, that 
does not admit the natural rights of every human be- 
ing, be he high or low, rich or poor, is not a good 
power, not a trustworthy organization, and none should 
lend aid or influence to it. 

Human rights are equal rights. 

We are all of one common origin — the earth. 

The composition of our bodies are all of similar 
particles. We are kindred of the rock, the minerals 
and the metals. Is there not lime, sulphur, carbon, 
silex, iron, etc., in the tissues and fibres, the bones 
and muscles of all? 

Are not the gases within us, as in the air we breathe, 
the water we drink? And the substance of all human, 
all animal bodies is the same. And at last, do we 
not all retire and sleep upon the same bed of dust, 
our particles slowly resolving back again to our com- 
mon mother, Earth? 

The blessed rain falls for us all alike. The great 
sun sheds his warm and healthful rays for all, share 
and share alike. 

There is no monopoly of air, water, sun and dew. 

And, all the world over, human nature seems of 
about the same quality, differing only in respect to 
education, training, growth, polish; those nations 
showing the highest perfection that have received the 
best development, the aids of progress and reform. 
What Shylock, the Jew, said, applies everywhere. 

"Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, or- 
gans, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with 



260 RIGHT LIVING 

the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject 
to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed 
and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Chris- 
tian is? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you 
tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we 
not die? and, if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? 
If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in 
that." 

Humanity is thus of one origin, but of different 
ways of thinking. Born in different countries, of edu- 
cated or uneducated parents of various conditions, 
as to wealth or poverty, taught variously, but honestly, 
as to religions, yet all equal in natural rights. In this 
particular, no one man, no set of men, should have 
any jurisdiction whatever. 

No one should arrogate authority over the life, lib- 
erty and the happiness of another. 

These are gifts of Nature belonging to all, to exer- 
cise, save those who violate these natural gifts and 
the laws that govern them, to the injury of others and 
the community. When this is done, by the unerring 
law of justice to the whole, such dangerous persons 
are restrained of the full exercise of life, liberty and 
happiness. 

Government was instituted for the purpose of se- 
curing the natural rights of individuals, and to protect 
them in the just and warranted exercise of the same. 
This is done by the wise enactment and carrying out 
of laws bearing upon the welfare of the whole. 

When a law is proven to be unwise and unjust it 
can be annulled, and a superior one made in its place. 

Our government derives its just powers from the 
consent of the governed. It cannot interfere with the 



HUMAN RIGHTS 261 

natural and inalienable rights of its citizens. Freedom 
of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, 
freedom to engage in any legitimate pursuit leading 
to happiness and support, are essentially human rights 
and these uphold the fabric of a free government as its 
most essential props and pillars. 

Governments change, according as people become 
enlightened, or dissatisfied with the old order of 
things. That which is suitable to one age may be en- 
tirely unsuited to another. The two principal forms 
of government at the present time are the monarchical 
and the republican. 

It is thought by many that a republican form of 
government is best because the powers are vested in 
the people, that it is a government, as Lincoln said, 
"Of the people, by the people, and for the people." 

Under the Declaration of Independence the form of 
the U. S. Government has been changed but once. 

At first it was a simple Confederacy of the origi- 
nal thirteen colonies. It was found, however, after a 
few years of trial, that this confederacy could be im- 
proved upon, and it was changed to our present Con- 
stitutional Republic. 

Freedom of speech and freedom of the press go hand 
in hand with natural rights. 

Still another important right of free men living in 
a free country is the right of conscience in the exer- 
cise of religious matters. 

It may be justly termed the 

Religious Rights. 

Under the Constitution of the United States, the 
personal rights of every individual are guaranteed. The 



262 RIGHT LIVING 

Constitution expressly declares that — "Congress shall 
make no law respecting an establishment of religion, 
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." 

In a country composed as is this, of peisons of all 
nationalities, there are many, and various modes of be- 
lief and worship. 

Each individual has a perfect right to the enjoyment 
of his religion in anyway that he may think proper, 
providing he does not interfere with the peace, safety 
and happiness of others. 

No one has any right to compel another to conform 
to his way of thinking and believing. 

The Jew, the m.any different Protestant sects, the 
one Catholic church, followers of the Greek faith, the 
Chinese, the Mahomedan, the Parsee, the Buddhist, 
the Swedenborgian, the Spiritualist, the Salvation 
Army, the Agnostic, and all the multitude of religious 
or non-religious parties, have each a perfect right to 
his own particular mode of belief, and nobody can 
lawfully prohibit, or interfere with the same. 

Each ma)' believe himself right in his doctrine, and 
he shall enjoy it as he pleases, day-time night-time 
or any time he desires, according to dictates of his 
conscience. No one shall harm or hurt him in his de- 
votions, unless his methods lead him into fanatical 
frenzy, to the destruction of human life or, to the 
neglect of family obligations, as to support and care, 
or to the disregard of moral obligations, to the indul- 
gence of polygamous and adulterous relations, when 
the law must interfere to restrain him from violence, 
and protect the citizens of the state and country, 
morally. 

Force cannot be used to cause people to believe 



HUMAN RIGHTS . 263 

any dogma, or to attend upon any particular mode of 
worship. 

He who obeys the laws under which he lives, both 
state and moral, discharges his obligations, politically, 
socially and morally, is a good citizen, whatever may 
be his religious belief, or preference. 

Human rights recognize the brotherhood of the en- 
tire human race. If some are lower than others in the 
scale of being, it is because they have not received 
the advantages of real instruction; the facts of morality 
have not been presented in such a light, as to enable 
them to appreciate^ justly their position as members 
of the great human family, with a birthright to all 
physical and moral good obtainable. 

The fact that all are brothers and sisters should be 
kept always in view; and, that the rights of one are 
those of every other, without any reference to creed, 
color or nationality. 

Accustom yourself to think every other person has 
as good a right to his opinion as you have to yours. 
Be fair. Be honest. Be kind. Be brotherly. Obey 
the law of the land. Obey the moral law. By these 
bright paths you reach the gates of happiness. 

A DELIGHTFUL LEGEND. 

One day all the learned men and women sat together 
in a temple disputing as to happiness. One said it 
was to possess wealth. Another said it was to have 
power, and another thought fame was productive of 
the greatest happiness. One thought to be ruler over 
many things was happiness and one said it was to 
have enough of this world's goods, and to live in the 
midst of loving children. One said happiness came 



264 RIGHT LIVING 

by keeping the commandments. Another said it con- 
sisted in helping the poor, relieving the destitute and 
bestowing alms generally. 

A little fair-haired girl who had listened attentively, 
while she wove roses in a chaplet, looked up smiling. 
"I think," said she, "happiness is found in being kind, 
just and true to all; in being good to one's self, and 
good to all the inhabitants of the world. It is better 
than wealth, better than power, better than fame, bet- 
ter than kingly rule, better than living in the midst 
of loving children, better than alms giving. It is un- 
selfishness. It is loving your neighbor as yourself." 

The wise men and wise women looked at each other 
and acquiesced in that which the child had spoken. 
One gray-haired sire arose and said "The child hath 
spoken wisely. Happiness is found in the great love 
we bear toward our race, and the desire and ability 
we exercise toward improving its condition." 

He continued. "Seneca tells us that 'Nature hath 
made us all relatives. It made us from the same 
materials and for the same destinies. She planted in 
us a mutual love and fitted us for a social life. What 
is a Roman knight, or freedman, or slave? They are 
but names springing from ambition or from injury.' 
Are we not all citizens and a part of the great world? 
Are we not all brothers? And shall we not first think 
of the good of the whole, kindly, justly, tenderly, un- 
selfishly? Is not this the full bloom of the tree of 
life? It is the ideal that shall become real. It is the 
perfect rose of humanity. It is found in the exercise of 
brotherly love. Let us all seek to wear this beautiful 
flower." 

As the aged man took his seat, the little girl who 



HUMAN RIGHTS 265 

had then finished the weaving of the chaplet of roses, 
placed it gently upon his bowed head, and the fresh, 
bright flowers gave perfume to the words spoken by 
the lips of experience and wisdom. 



LV. 

MORAL CLEANLINESS. 

Well may your hearts believe the truths I tell; 

'Tis virtue makes the bliss wherein we dwell. Collins. 

He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith. Scripture. 

A pet cat belonging to a wealthy lad}' had fallen in- 
to a cesspool. Managing to emerge from the pool, 
the animal walked into the house and into the draw- 
ing-room, where in all her uncleanliness she reclined 
upon a velvet cushion. Imagine the shriek of dismay 
that went up from the refined lady of the house upon 
discovering the cat in her unfortunate condition. 

Morally, one who has fallen into the cesspool of vice 
and shame is in just such a situation as was the cat. 

Every movement of his is a voice crying out "Un- 
clean! Unclean!" And would not those who are 
cleanly and pure themselves, especially the friends of 
the victims of uncleanness, often shriek in pain and 
agony if they could seethe condition of the immoral? 

One gets into the depths of impurity, not all at once, 
not always with one plunge. Step by step, inch by 
inch, the path leads down the hill. 

A train of ills and sorrows follows the unchaste and 
the impure. Men and women, boys and girls, have 
been ruined for life, by immorality and vice, begin- 
ning, perhaps by harboring impure thoughts, which 
finally culminated in impure acts. 
2G6 



MORAL CLEANLINESS 267 

A person becomes known by the company he keeps. 
Do you associate with the immoral, the low and de 
graded? You will be classed as one of the same type. 
Neither by personal contact or association in thought, 
should you keep company with the immoral and the 
unchaste. 

But, you say it is not wrong to think. 

It is wrong to think wrong. 

True, we are held amenable to law by our deeds 
only, but there is a higher moral law to which we are 
answerable. 

If we hold converse with the degraded, mix with 
them in the vile story, the coarse jest, in unbridled 
fancy and imagination, we are so far lowered in our 
own self-respect. We descend from a moral height to 
grovel in the depths of uncleanliness. To think licen- 
tiously makes one licentious inwardly. He may be re- 
strained from open acts on account of the civil laws, 
but, in mind, he is on a level with the unrestrained 
and impure. No one should associate in thought with 
those with whom he would not mingle in society. 

With a view to help the fallen, to lift them from 
degradation to a higher life, it is right to meet all 
on the true plane of brotherhood, but, to fall into their 
loose and dissolute ways, to be one with them in per- 
son and in thought; is moral degradation. 

Aside from the society of the unchaste from which 
the wise will flee as from the greatest danger, are the 
vile pictures, representations of immorality, printed 
stories of most questionable import. 

Immoral books are the poison that destroys many 
an otherwise pure and virtuous person. 

Turn from everything of the sort, if you would 



268 RIGHT LIVING 

preserve the pure, sweet, healthful tone of your men- 
tal nature. Obscene publications are the starting 
point of many a downward career. By many paths they 
lead to misery, disease, insanity, the poor-house and 
prison. 

Do not suffer your eyes to so much as look upon 
any print or publication which you would be ashamed 
to show to your mother. Such vile and improper ob- 
jects are the poisonous exhalations of depraved hu- 
manity. They fire the imagination, suggest the low 
and lascivious company, and, if indulged in, soon de- 
stroy the beautiful and true in moral and physical 
life." 

As tobacco, alcohol, opium, morphine and the like, 
when used to excess, kill the sources of strength and 
power, so do the immoral publications work insid- 
iously upon the intellectual nature, stunting its growth 
and loveliness, until it sinks beneath its load of miasma, 
and falls a poor, demented wreck, a ruin of former 
purity. 

Some people delight in the ribald song, the vulgar 
joke, the gross idea, the repartee with a half concealed 
double meaning, that brings a blush of shame to the 
cheek of innocence. 

Shun the company of such and copy not their ways. 
'Keep thy lips from guile," and preserve the purity 
of thought and speech. How? 

By a firm and resolute determination to do nothing, 
say nothing, think nothing but that which is pure, 
lofty, noble. Establish the habit of right thinking, 
right talking, right doing, and this accomplished, you 
are safe from the destroyer. There is not a more price- 
less pearl than purity of mind and thought. Self-re- 



MORAL CLEANLINESS 269 

spect bids all to turn from the debasing allurements 
that lead to but one goal, corruption and destruction. 

Let the thought and the conversation be of the high 
and virtuous character that uplifts and ennobles, that 
strengthens and enriches. Thus will you become an 
honor to yourself and to society, helpful, and a tower 
of strength to others around you. 

Society does not need or desire the immoral and de- 
graded. It does want the pure, the upright, the moral. 

It is your duty as an intelligent human being to be 
chaste and cleanly. Be as careful of the clothing of 
the mind as of the outward apparel. Let no smirch 
or smut soil the pure garments of thought. Be cleanly, 
inside and outside. Thus will you attain an honest, 
sterling character, of high moral excellence. This is 
the grand ultimatum of education. 

Schopenhauer, the great German philosopher, when 
at Worms, was accustomed to stop at a first-class 
hotel patronized by the elite of the officers in garrison. 

Whenever Schopenhauer got down to his place at 
the table, he pulled out a bright gold piece, put it 
before his plate, and, in getting up, carefully pocketed 
it again. Several of the noble officers, having observed 
this little game during three consecutive days, made 
bold to ask his reason for it. "What is your pleasure?" 
replied the philosopher. "I am somewhat after the 
style of Diogenes, and I have vowed to give this 
gold piece to a beggar on the day you and your col- 
leagues stop your low, vile talk about women and 
horses. I have been waiting ten years." 

The true man will be as chaste and pure in thought, 
expression and in act, as he expects woman to be. 

The chastity demanded of one sex should be exactly 



270 RIGHT LIVING 

that of the other. This is in accord with the law of 
equity and justice. Moral men are as much a neces- 
sity of true living as moral women. 

Where women are degraded, enslaved and held in 
light esteem, there is no lofty moral standard among 
men. 



LV1. 

POLITENESS. THE GENTLEMAN. 

Sae true his heart, sae smooth his speech! 

His breath like caller air; 

His very foot has music in it, 

As he comes up the stair. Jean Adams. 

Without morality we would be a miserable people. 
Without politeness we would be a beastly people. 

Politeness, or good manners, is no more or less than 
human good sense. It is kindness, gentleness, thought- 
fulness, unselfishness, consideration of others first, 
yourself last. 

Of what avail would be all our laws if, back of them, 
following them, with them, were not good manners. 

When the sun comes over the hills in the morning, 
did you ever note the gladness that seems to spread 
imperceptibly everywhere, along with the diffusing 
light? The birds burst forth into sweeter song, the 
flowers lift their heads, and the dew sparkles with 
prismatic beauty before the advancing sun rays, the 
flood of new light, new warmth and new beauty. So 
gracefully do good manners become the man, woman 
and child. 

The laws of the land, many of them are but expres- 
sions of politeness and the manners of a civilized race. 
We are bound by the laws of our mutual dependence, 
to be kindly toward one another, courteous and amia- 
271 



272 RIGHT LIVING 

ble. Politeness may be termed the breath of a healthy 
civilization. 

To be really polite is to mean what you say. 

It is to be sincere in word and deed. 

It is not, to be patronizing or condescending toward 
another. 

It is not in speaking kindly, or in doing a favor, to 
talk or act as though you were stooping to it from a 
superior station in life. 

Good breeding will show itself in any rank in so- 
ciety. The operative in the mill, the mecharic at the 
bench, the hostler in the stable, the servant girl in the 
kitchen, may be as polite, and, in many cases, is more 
so, than the millionaire and titled lord. The real gen- 
tleman will show himself under any garb, and polite- 
ness becomes alike, both king and subject. 

A little story is told of a negro lifting his hat to 
General Washington and the general politely returned 
the salute. A person in the company of the distin- 
guished first President of the United States, re- 
monstrated with him at his act in thus noticing a 
poor negro, and asked why he did so. "Because," 
was the reply, "I would not have a negro outdo me 
in politeness. To be treated politely is as much his due 
as it is mine." 

Politeness is an acquisition all may possess if they 
wish, and it is one that all should strive for. The 
humblest toiler that attends the machinery of a cotton 
mill may be as noble a gentleman in this respect, as 
the lordly owner of many mills. 

The real gentleman does not appear always beneath 
a covering of fine clothes or much jewelry. He is dis- 
covered by his acts. 



POLITENESS. THE GENTLEMAN 273 

A poor beggar woman was once carrying a heavy 
basket of "cold pieces." A gentleman, for he was 
that, overtaking her, said, "My good woman, that 
basket is heavy. Allow me to carry it for you." He 
took the basket upon his own arm, walked along by 
the side of the woman in scant and tattered raiment, 
to the door of her squalid abode, entered with her, 
noted her needs and the needs of her children, and 
supplied them, furnished her with employment and 
made her self-supporting. This man was not widely 
known to the world but he was a great man, a gentle- 
man. 

A gentleman will not be guilty of a mean or an un- 
gracious act, but he is ever doing something to please, 
to help, to benefit others. He is honest, honorable, 
true, and he assumes no virtue that he does not possess. 
His moral nature, educated and refined by reason, 
made beautiful by self-respect, leads him to respect 
all, and treat all with kindness and gentleness. 

To be a gentleman is to be simply a good man to 
scorn meanness in any, and every form. 

It is to have a fine, noble character. 

It is to have honor and principle, steadfastness, 
frankness. 

It is to be true to the truth, to despise a falsehood. 
It is to walk uprightly. 

It is to be fair to all. It is to be thoughtful, con- 
scientious, considerate of everyone, no matter what 
his condition, lofty or lowly. 

It is beautifully told of Sir Ralph Abercromby, 
when he was mortally wounded in the battle of Aboukir, 
he was being carried on a litter to the war vessel, the 
Foudroyant. Some one brought a soldier's blanket, 



274 RIGHT LIVING 

folded it and placed it under his head. It made him 
more comfortable, for he was suffering great pain. 
Suddenly he asked what it was they had placed be- 
neath his head. "It is only a soldier's blanket," was 
the reply. "Whose blanket is it?" he asked. "Only 
one of the men's." "But whose blanket is it? I wish 
to know the name of the man to whom it belongs." 
"It is Duncan Roy's of the 42d, Sir Ralph," said the 
attendant. "Then see that Duncan Roy gets his blan- 
ket this very night." 

Many foolishly suppose it is rank, wealth, high po- 
sition that makes the gentleman. It is not so. These 
things never do make a gentleman, never can. A boy 
once talking with a mechanic said, "Now, there is 
Professor — . He teaches in a college. He wears 
good clothes. I call him a gentleman." 

"But am I not a gentleman, too?" inquired the 
mechanic. 

"Oh, no! look at your hard hands, your" overalls, 
your box of tools that you carry on your shoulder. 
You are not a gentleman." 

"Well, you are a little weak-minded, foolish boy. I 
am a carpenter. I behave myself and I respect my- 
self. My hard work helped to educate Professor — , 
who is my brother, and I am just as much a gentleman 
as he is. " 

"Did you ever read," he continued, "how the Scot- 
tish poet Burns was once pulled over the coals by a 
young Edinburgh fop with whom he was walking, be- 
cause he recognized an honest farmer in the street? 
"'Why, you fantastic gomeral,'" says Burns "'it was 
not the great coat, the scone bonnet and the saunders 
boot hose that I spoke to, but the man that was in 



POLITENESS. THE GENTLEMAN 275 

them ; and, the man, sir, for true worth, would weigh 
down you and me, and ten more such, any day.'" 

The real gentleman is not afraid of any honest em- 
ployment. He is pleased that he is able to earn his 
living by his labor. 

He carries constantly a sense of his own true man- 
hood. 

He holds his head erect and dares to look any man 
straight in the face. 

He pays his debts and is glad to do it. He fears 
nothing but to do wrong. 

He does the right on all occasions, so far as he is 
able to, although he is sometimes liable to mistakes, 
but when he perceives them he is quick to rectify 
them. 

He is honest, true, sincere; he is philanthropic, 
industrious, frugal, and lives up to his standard 
of right living, at home and abroad, because he knows 
this way is promotive of happiness and good feeling. 

The gentleman, is the good citizen. 

He is the star that shines amid the dark deeds of a 
naughty world. 

WHO ARE THE GENTRY? 

The young brother of an English nobleman was 
present at a dinner party in New York at one time. 
He expressed himself with commendable freedom as 
to his opinion of America and its people. "I — ah — do 
not — ah — altogether like the country," said the young 
gentleman, "for — ah — this — reason — you — ah — have 
no gentry here." "What do you mean by gentry?" 
asked one. "Well — ah— you know — ah," replied the 
Englishman, "well — ah — gentry are those — c'h — who 



276 RIGHT LIVING 

never — ah— do an)' work themselves, and — ah — whose 
fathers before them — ah — never did any." "Why," 
exclaimed his interlocutor, "then there are plenty of 
gentry in America, but we don't call them gentry; we 
call them tramps!" 

Those are the best manners which raise you in the 
opinion of others, without sinking you in your own. 



LVII. 

POLITENESS — CONTINUED. THE GENTLEWOMAN. 

Her voice was ever soft, 
Gentle and low; an excellent thing in woman. Shakespeare. 

The same rules, as to good manners and politeness 
that apply to man, apply also, to woman. While it is 
neither right or just to expect more from woman than 
from man, from a girl than a boy, yet society has 
fallen into such a habit. Woman would be looked 
upon as a horrible creature, did she use tobacco and 
go about expectorating upon the public streets and 
in public hallways; or did she pollute the air with 
vile cigar smoke, taint her breath and her clothing 
with the same, and appear in public with a meerschaum, 
or a common clay pipe, in her mouth. She would ap- 
pear most disgusting, did she habitually have her 
mouth filled with profane and inelegant language; or, 
if she were a frequenter of clubs or places of bad resort, 
frequently appearing in those places, and in her home, 
so much under the influence of intoxicating beverages 
as to be unable to attend to her work, or to entertain her 
friends. She would be considered vulgar and immoral. 
The conduct and manners that would not be tolerated 
in a woman ought not to be countenanced in a man, 
for that which is right for one sex is right for the 
other, and nothing is right for either sex that is debas- 
ing and degrading. 

277 



27S RIGHT LIVING 

The genuine gentlewoman, the same as the gentle- 
man is always polite, courteous, thoughtful for the hap- 
piness of others. There are many little acts insignifi- 
cant in themselves, but of great value in the aggregate 
— that go far toward adding to the beauty of social life. 

The "sweet small courtesies" make home lovely and 
invest every place with a distinct glory, and every per- 
son with a distinct grace. How the heart goes out to 
the one who scatters bright words and happy smiles, 
like sweet-scented flowers, wherever he or she ap- 
pears! 

How simple it is to say "Good-morning" and yet 
those two words, well spoken, have made sunshine in 
many an otherwise dreary place. A warm, earnest 
grasp of the hand has conveyed health and strength 
to many a weary heart. "Take care of yourself, " when 
meant and felt by the speaker, has been like a soft, 
warm mantle on a chil^ day to many a hard, toil-worn 
man and woman. He, or she, who drops cheery words 
along the pathway of others, is a benefactor to the 
human race, and the words they utter linger on mem- 
ory's ear like sweetest music. "Civility costs nothing 
and buys everything." Like mercy, "it blesseth him 
that gives, and him that takes." 

A lady, one day, hurrying along the street, acci- 
dentally pushed against a little ragged boy in her 
haste. "I beg your pardon," said she, as courteously 
as if he had been a prince. 

"You may knock me down," said the little urchin 
"if you want to." "It's the first time," said he, turn- 
ing to a companion, "that a lady ever axed my pard- 
ing!" Of a similar character is the following: 

Several winters ago a woman was coming out from 



POLITENESS. THE GENTLEWOMAN 279 

a public building where the heavy doors swung back 
and made egress somewhat difficult. A little urchin 
sprang to the rescue, and, as he held open the door, 
she said, "Thank you," and passed on. 

"D'ye hear that?" said the boy to a companion 
standing near by him. 

"No; what?" 

"Why, that lady said 'Thank ye' to the likes o' me." 

Amused at the conversation the lady turned and said 
to the boy : 

"It always pays to be polite, my boy; remember 
that." 

Years passed away, and one December, when doing 
her Christmas shopping, this same lady received ex- 
ceptional courtesy from a clerk in Boston, which caused 
her to remark to a lady who was with her: 

"What a great comfort to be civilly treated once 
in a while, though I don't know that I blame the store 
clerks for being rude during the holidays." 

The young man's quick ear caught the words, and 
he said : 

"Pardon me, madame, but you gave me my first 
lesson in politeness a few years ago." 

The lady looked at him in amazement while he re- 
lated the little forgotten incident, and told her that 
the simple "Thank you" awakened his ambition to 
be something in the world. He went and applied for 
a situation as office boy in the establishment where 
he was now an honored and trusted clerk. 

If all would be natural, kindly affectioned, one to- 
ward another, how much brighter and more beautiful 
this world might be. We may, by care and effort, form 
a habit of happy thinking, and when once formed, it 



2S0 RIGHT LIVING 

is of priceless value, for it spreads itself and extends 
happiness to others. 

Success in life largely depends upon good behavior 
and good manners. 

An angular, eccentric, rude, boisterous way of speak- 
ing and acting, does not win. Some affect this mode 
for the sake of notice, but it is not attractive. 

It is tolerated, sometimes, because of wealth or posi- 
tion of parties, but is never received like the sweet 
and modest graces of true politeness and a gentle de- 
meanor. 

One may be original, and should, indeed, so en- 
deavor to be, but originality is never brusqueness. 

The gentlewoman, and the gentle girl are recognized 
by their deportment toward their associates, at home, 
in school, in society, in business, wherever they may 
be, in all stations of life. 

Discretion, tact, forbearance, kindliness are wanted 
in every department of life's work. Is the little girl, 
or big girl, snappish and snarling at home to her 
brothers and sisters, to her parents, and does she go 
stamping, poutingly, frowningly to the tasks appointed 
her? In school is she cross, peevish, sullen to teacher 
and playmate, selfish and exacting? In society does 
she treat this one with favor and that one with dis- 
favor? Does she fawn upon the rich, and frown upon 
the poor? How does she regard subordinates? how 
treat her servants? Is she kind toward them, respect- 
ful and attentive to their needs and wishes? Is she 
considerate of their feelings, charitable toward their 
faults and failings, forgiving their mistakes and help- 
ing them to do better? Is she mindful of their qual- 
ities, and, does she remember that their work well 



POLITENESS. THE GENTLEWOMAN 281 

done, is as worthy as her labor in art or embroider) 7 . 

When Napoleon was banished to St. Helena, he was 
accustomed to take long walks daily, attended by Mrs. 
Balcombe. Upon one occasion they were obliged to 
stop in order for the servants to pass on the road with 
some heavy boxes they were carrying. Mrs. B. in an 
angry and loud tone of voice, desired them to keep 
back until they, Napoleon and herself, had passed. 

Napoleon said No, the servants should go on with 
their work and turning to Mrs. B. said, "Madame, 
Respect the burden." 

So should the burdens of life, and they are many, 
be always respected and the burden carriers, also. 

The gentlewoman is recognized by her gentleness. 
She is kind .to everybody, courteous upon all occa- 
sions, and bows to no rank save that of real worth. 

She turns aside from none on account of difference 
in position or opinion. She does not think herself 
superior to another because she has finer clothes or a 
costlier home. She despises no one because of belief, 
but recognizes the fact that the rights of one are 
those of another, no matter what his station or opin- 
ion. 

She is tolerant, charitable, agreeable and polite to 
every one. 

In her true eyes, the greatest titles are those of good 
health and a clear conscience. She is firm in her con- 
victions, but not dogmatic or dictatorial to others. 
Respecting herself she respects others. To her those 
who wear the human form are sacred. Guided by 
honor and principle, she is not afraid to examine and 
investigate all questions relative to human well-being. 

She is tender, sympathetic, thoughtful for others, 



282 RIGHT LIVING 

and her best manners are not for guests only, but for 
the home and fireside. She is indeed a creature, 
"Not too bright or good 
For human nature's daily food." 
She is at all times, a true and noble woman. All this 
is not to say that she has no faults. No one is perfect, 
and the gentlewoman does not claim to be. Because 
she is aware of her failings, she tries to correct them 
and to be forbearing toward others. 
The gentlewoman is the good woman. 
The world is better for her being in it. 
She rounds the corners of life, she smooths the 
rough ways, and softens the hard places. She removes 
the thorns and makes the flowers bloom in the deserts 
of life. She makes the fact apparent everywhere she 
goes, that — 

"Politeness is to do and say 

The kindest things in the kindest way." 



LVIII. 

BEST SOCIETY. 

A traveller toiling on a weary way, 
Found in his path, a piece of fragrant clay. 
"This seems but common earth," says he, "but how 
Delightful! it is full of sweetness now. 
Whence is thy fragrance?" From the clay there grows 
A voice, "I have been very near a rose." J. J. Pratt, 

[translated from the German.] 

A great deal is said about the best society and the 
entrance to it. 

What is best society? 

Do you say it is composed of those who possess 
wealth, popularity and renown? — that those who make 
it, dress expensively, wear jewels of great value, and at- 
tend all the fashionable balls, parties and receptions? 

On the contrary, none of these things make the best 
society. Those who possess them must have other 
qualities, other special gifts and attractions, or they 
can never be members of society worthy to be called 
the best. 

Fashionable society contains some ingredients, that, 
judged by their manners and morals, would be very 
unfit associates for any high-minded person. 

There are many false coins among those styling 
themselves leaders and makers of best society. 

Many keep an outward show of a fine appearance, 
but, inwardly, they are vile and corrupt. 
283 



2 S 4 RIGHT LIVING 

Those, who carry with them the air and manner of 
exclusiveness, who indicate by presence and bearing, 
that they are a select few, that they live in a magic 
circle, bordered by a wealthy social distinction are not 
really of the finest, or most desirable* texture. 

What can form the very highest and the best society 
anywhere, but the applied principles of a true moral- 
ity? 

Society composed of gentlemen and gentlewomen 
of high moral tone, who practice the laws of reason, 
justice, kindness, forbearance, who, in fact, live up to 
the moral teachings of life, these, and these only,con- 
stitute best society, society that all may be entitled to 
enter, and be proud to be considered a part of. 

Good behavior is a great accomplishment. Good 
morals are the finest of all accomplishments. They 
are the real value, without which no society is worth 
the name. 

One may be wealthy, witty, famous, fashionable, 
highly educated, born of a long line of noble ancestry, 
but without good morals, he is not a good member of 
good society, not one whose companionship we should 
be desirous of cultivating. 

Good morals are a part of the life we live from the 
cradle to the grave. 

They are inseparable from civilized life. They are 
the chief part of social life in its finest condition. 

They who are honest, painstaking, well-doing, truth- 
ful, moral, upright, whose daily lives are clean and 
wholesome, no matter who they are, or, where they 
live, are fitted to be members of the best society. 

The manly character, the womanly character, he or 
she, who has the virtues and the practice of them, 



BEST SOCIETY 285 

the graces of a noble mind, a pure heart, a clear con- 
science, these are the sterling wealth of the finest so- 
ciety on earth. These are the foundation stones of 
a society that all should be desirous of entering. 

Without these qualities one cannot feel at home \v 
the best society, and these must be learned, practiced, 
over and over again, until they become a part of the 
being, a part of life. It is of such fibre that are made 
our great men and our great women. 

There was once an old bishop who was renowned 
for his goodness and greatness. He had a stupid and 
idle brother who upon one occasion asked the bishop, 
his brother, to be kind enough to make a great man 
of him. "Brother" said the bishop "if your plough 
is broken I'll pay for the mending of it; or if your ox 
should die I'll buy you another; but, I cannot make a 
great man of you; a ploughman I found you and I 
fear, a ploughman I must leave you.'* 

Unless one can have the approbation of his own 
mind and conscience, he cannot become a worthy mem- 
ber of the best society, but, unless he is able to enter 
it he had better remain solitary. 

Artificial society is composed of artificial folks. It 
is not fit for real men and women. 

The best society is the noblest because composed of 
noble, true-hearted, intelligent,moral persons. Whether 
they be of high birth, great wealth, fine connections, or 
not, it does not matter. The)* may have these and be 
worthy; or,they may have them and be most unworthy. 

In seeking society, the things to be thought of 
are moral and physical health, virtuous conduct, and 
the good actions that follow these graces. A perfume 
emanates from such association that is grateful, help- 



286 RIGHT LIVING 

ful and elevating. To belong to this society is an 
honor, and any boy or girl, any man or woman, may 
reach it, by attaining to a high standard of moral be- 
havior and intellectual grace. 

Good morals are the letters of recommendation re- 
quired by all true business, and social,circles. 

A man advertised for an office boy. There were 
sixty applications. One was selected out of the lot, 
on sight. 

"Why do you select that boy?" inquired a friend. 
"He did not carry a single recommendation while 
the other boys, each had several notes from teachers 
and friends." "Certainly, he had recommendations," 
said the merchant. "When he came in, he said 'Good 
morning, sir,' he closed the door carefully and not 
with a bang ; he wiped his feet, which showed he was 
careful. He arose and proffered his seat to the old 
gentleman, which was evidence of politeness, kind- 
ness, thoughtfulness. He held his cap in his hand 
and answered my every question respectfully, in a gen- 
tlemanly manner. He picked up the book that I pur- 
posely laid on the floor, while the other boys stepped 
over it, or kicked it aside. He was quiet, orderly and 
patient, and stood a long time awaiting his turn, which 
told me he is honest and conscientious. His clothes 
were clean, his hair brushed with care, and his teeth 
were white; and when he wrote his name, I observed 
his finger nails were clean instead of being tipped 
with jet like that pompous little fellow in the velvet 
jacket. Don't you call those things letters of recom- 
mendation? I do; and I would give more for what I 
can tell about a boy by using my eyes ten minutes, 
than for all the written recommendations of character 
he can bring me in as many hours." 



LIXo 

progress; or enlightenment. 

Friend, go up higher. Scripture. 

Progress is our being's motto and hope. Gaining and losing in this 
world, rising and falling, enjoying and suffering are but the incidents 
of life. Learning, aspiration, progress is the hope of life. Dewey. 

There are those who constantly decry the present, 
and who adore the past; some who think the world 
has made no advancement, but, is rather going back- 
ward, especially in morals and methods of living. 

This cannot be true. Great and beneficent changes 
and improvements are noted within the present cen- 
tury such as railroads, steamships, improved farm im_ 
plements, friction matches, illuminating gas, and 
electric light; the telegraph, telephone and phono- 
graph; the caloric engine, cooking ranges, the photo- 
graph and very many other evidences of marked prog- 
ress in material points of view, may be seen on every 
hand. With this material progression has followed 
a steady advancement of morals. 

Punishment for opinion's sake, belief in witchcraft, 
sorcery; the abolition of slavery and the slave trade; 
the abandonment of flogging in the U.S. Navy; the 
custom of selecting teachers for their ability to wield 
the rod — the silent putting away of these, and other 
relics of savagery ; the establishment of societies for 
the prevention of cruelty to children, and to the an- 
287 



288 RIGHT LIVING 

imal kingdom; the laws enacted for the unprotected; 
the new comforts added to civilization; the system of 
associated charities; the inclination of all toward pity 
and sympathy, are forceful arguments, showing the 
steady advance of a high moral sentiment. The old 
days had their virtues; but they were not superior to 
the present; if so, then progress would be dead. 

The good qualities of the past have blossomed in 
the present. Flour ^and yeast were mixed last night 
that there might be good bread to day. With better 
schools, nobler systems of education, the development 
of thought, humanity has grown larger, expanded — by 
no means perfect, but, showing fine growth and 
healthy promise. 

There is displayed greater interest in moral good- 
ness and greatness, in making the conditions of human 
life better, in sanitary regulations, in gradually abol- 
ishing child labor, in helpfulness to the unfortunate 
and weak. 

The brutality that revelled in scenes of bloodshed 
and horror in the dim, dark ages of the past has given 
place to pity, sympathy and love. 

There are yet however, many ills to blot out, much 
wrong to overcome. But all will be accomplished by 
the eternal law of Right. 

Science with her flaming torch leads the way to still 
grander heights of greater blessedness. 

Progress is enlightenment. It is daylight instead 
of darkness. Enlightenment is knowledge where once 
was ignorance. It is assured fact where once was 
doubt. It is the duty of all to become enlightened, 
for thus we learn better how to live, how to become 
better citizens, more helpful to ourselves and to one 
another. 



PROGRESS; OR ENLIGHTENMENT 289 

"Good and evil are the circumstances of life." By 
enlightenment we learn the way to control them, so 
far as possible, to the well-being of man. 

Enlightenment is the recognition of truth. It is 
the rejection of prejudice, delusion, superstition, er- 
ror. It is illumination. 

The mind should be kept open, free to receive and 
to perceive. Why? Because in this way only, can 
we arrive at enlightenment, and to that condition 
where we note the difference between right and wrong. 

The forces of a true moral education bear directly 
upon opening the channels of enlightenment. How 
else shall we know the uses of living, the worth of 
the virtues. 

Being enlightened we shall do the right because we 
shall know beyond, all doubt, that it is best. 

The truly enlightened person is a better man, better 
woman, in the home, in society, everywhere, knows 
better how to utilize his powers and the powers of 
the universe. 

People fail in life because not enlightened. Their 
work would be better if they knew the way to make it 
better. They stumble, they blunder, they err. Show 
them a little, and the path they tread grows bright and 
beautiful. The way is always upward and onward, 
and the command to every one is — "Friend, go up 
higher. " 



LX. 



Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace. 

Scripture. 
I ask not wealth, but power to take 

And use the things I have aright. 
Not years, but wisdom that shall make 

My life a profit and delight. 
I ask not that, for me the plan 

Of good and ill be set aside; 
But that the common lot of man 

Be better made and glorified. Phcebe Cary. 

Wisdom is the power of discernment. It is the 
crown of good judgment. 

It is higher knowledge. It is wise power. Coleridge 
says "Wisdom is common sense in an uncommon de- 
gree." Another says "It is the use of the best means 
for attaining the best ends." It is true light. It is 
righteousness. 

To possess wisdom is to be uplifted without appre- 
hending it. It is to tread the heights of moral life. 

To have wisdom is to be rich in the best wealth of 
life — the wealth that cannot take to itself wings and 
vanish, except in the dethronement of the intellect. 

One may have great knowledge of books and yet 
lack wisdom. Some children without much knowl- 
edge, yet possess wisdom. To have wisdom is to have 
the capacity of seeing right, of discerning, also, the 
path to which the right points. It is to adapt means 
lo an end. 

290 



WISDOM 291 

It is sometimes said and generally supposed, that 
only the aged, those who have entered upon the "sere 
and yellow leaf," whose heads are gray, have wisdom t 

But some in this stage of life exhibit no greater 
wisdom than many who are younger, and sometimes 
far less. And there is no reason why the young may 
not have wisdom if they seek for it, as well as older 
persons. They may lack experience, but they may 
acquire wisdom, and experience comes by living. 
There is a vast difference between knowledge and wis- 
dom. Says Cowper, 

' 'Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, 
Have ofttimes no connection. Knowledge dwells 
In heads replete with thoughts of other men; 
Wisdom in minds attentive to her own. 
Knowledge, a rude, unprofitable mass, 
The mere material with which Wisdom builds, 
Till smoothed and squared, and fitted to its place. 
Does not encumber whom it seem to enrich. 
Knowledge is proud that he has learned. so much, 
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more." 

Wisdom is to have a sense, deep and true, of the 
morals, to know what they are, and knowing, to apply 
their use to everyday life, guaging conduct from day 
to day, from hour to hour, by this comprehension. 
By such moral understanding, is made an unbroken 
harmony in methods of living. 

In learning wisdom, keen observation teaches much, 
reflection, reason, common sense are pointers and the 
experience of others, is helpful, strengthening, guid- 
ing power. 

It is perhaps impossible for one to have wisdom in 
all things. But all can try to secure a little, as much 
as resources will permit. 



292 RIGHT LIVING 

To see one idling away precious time neglecting the 
duties of life, growing up in indolence, squandering his 
best days in profligacy, in gluttony, in wasteful extrav- 
agance, in ways that lead to disease and ruin, all would 
say, is not wisdom But, on the contrary, to behold 
one who is careful, conscientious, prudent, well-be- 
haved, well-educated, improving his time, earning his 
living, doing good as he goes along, living a noble, 
self-respecting, moral life, we would say, he is wise, 
he has wisdom. Those who follow his example will be 
wise also. 

The being wise now, just at this time, and hence on, 
is wisdom. 

"I expect, "said a worthy Quaker "to pass through 
this world but once. If therefore there be any kind- 
ness I can show or anything I can do for my fellow- 
men, let me do it now. Let me not neglect or defer 
it, for I shall not pass this way again. " 

So if we have wisdom the time to show it is now. 

It appears in many ways, and is free to all. 

Wisdom is the application of all the good we know 
to the whole of life. It is the carrying out to the 
letter, all moral intentions. 

It is the obligation we are under to live a true and 
noble life, the best life possible. This we owe to our- 
selves as intelligent reasoning beings. We owe it to 
our friends and neighbors, to the citizens of the com- 
munity, and of the world of which we are one and a 
part, to be wise, true, honest men and women. Right- 
living is wisdom. 



